Fate's Little Games
by Artemis1292
Summary: It was supposed to be her last year of freedom, her final hurrah before entering the United States Naval Academy. Add in giant robots, a secret branch of the military called NEST, and an intergalactic alien war. Let's just say plans have changed.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **Well, I'm not happy with my other TF fic, so I thought I try this idea and see which one you guys like more.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Transformers, just my OCs

* * *

When you've been running around in a full BDU (Battle Dress Uniform, or Combat Uniform) in the middle of July in Alabama, it's hard to imagine anything could be hotter, though seeing as the majority of people have never done such a thing, I suppose you'll just have to take my word for it.

I swiped away a drop of sweat that had been making its way down my forehead, careful not to wipe too hard and smear the layer of dried charcoal camouflage that covered every inch of visible skin, including the tips of my ears. I was lying on my stomach, under a large tangle of brambles, waiting with the rest of my team for the target.

"Hey Jinx, see anything yet?" A scratchy voice in my ear buzzed briefly as I continued watching down the road. That's me, by the way, Jinx. Obviously it's not my real name, just a callsign. We don't go by our real names at Aviation Challenge. You don't know what that is? It's not surprising I suppose, AC isn't the greatest on advertising. It's a military camp of sorts, mostly Air Force, but some might say there's more of a Navy influence. Kids whose ages range from ten to eighteen come to Huntsville, Alabama for a week, or more, for an experience, well of a lifetime, not to be cliché. Age groups are split up into 3 Machs. I'm a Mach III, and it's my last summer here, but moving on.

I scanned the road just to make sure before replying: "Negative." The road, which connected the main camp area to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, was empty.

"Well damn. Hope our Intel's good." Came the same voice before its owner, Ajax, closed the link with a click.

A few hours before we had been called in from Drill and Ceremony practice, aka Tap-Off from hell, for a special briefing. That wasn't a big surprise, being Mach III 12-dayers we had come to expect such missions. No, the surprise was the box of goodies including two pairs of heat-sensor binoculars and two sets of mikes and earpieces, and the fact that we were going in blind, well mostly. Safety, our huge, muscular, and slightly scary CO had just smiled at us, it's never a good thing when he looks that happy, and told us that we were to apprehend and board a bus full of people from Huntsville that would leave the Space Center at precisely 1300 hours, or one o'clock. That would give us a window of fifteen minutes tops before another bus set out. Then he sent us off, still grinning, and told us we had five minutes to prepare.

The location our team had chosen was probably the best for an ambush, just preceding a wide turn in the road before it hit the straight stretch to the camp. The trees were closest to the road here, providing good cover. Everything was set, a large log across the road to stop the bus, our team spread throughout the wood keeping watch in every direction. All we needed was for the bus to show up.

And finally it did.

"Jinx to Ajax, target's in sight." A breath of relief was heard through the earpiece.

The thuds of bodies hitting the dirt sounded through the quiet area as Scarecrow, our Patrol Leader, signaled for everyone to get down.

I paid no more mind to the irritating drops of sweat as the bus drew nearer, slowing as the driver caught sight of the roadblock, and finally coming to a stop right in front of us.

At Scarecrow's signal we moved out, imaginary guns held in front of us as we made a perimeter around the prone vehicle. Lynx and Coyote, our Alpha Search team moved quickly to the still closed doors, knocking on them and entering after they opened with a loud hiss. The two darted inside leaving us to wait. Since they're Alpha Search they get the job of going in first and eliminating threats. This one didn't seem like much, it was probably just a group of kids from the local YMCA that we were going take hostage or something like that.

After what couldn't have been more than a minute Lynx reappeared, an odd expression on his face. He waved for me to come over, and after receiving permission from Scarecrow I obliged, confused as anyone else as to what the problem was.

The question was answered as soon as I stepped on board.

"Jinx to Ajax, you might want to have Scarecrow come onboard, he's going to want to see this." I muttered into the mike, quite aware that our time was running short.

Scarecrow's tall, lanky form appeared at the doors seconds later.

He stepped on board to see what the rest of us had discovered. It wasn't a busload of children. It was a busload of fully outfitted soldiers, USAF by the look of them, and they didn't seem too happy to have been held up by a bunch of teenagers.

"Well this complicates things." Scarecrow growled, a scowl firmly in place. "Jinx, I want you to radio Command and tell them exactly what I write down. And put it on speaker so the rest of us can hear."

"Yes sir." I said with a nod, turning the dial on my radio to open the correct channel.

"Eagle 5, this is Wolf 6."

There was a faint crackle as Command responded, Safety's voice coming over the radio. "Eagle 5 here, go ahead Wolf 6."

Scarecrow shoved a piece of paper with some hastily written, thankfully still legible, words.

"Target is in sight and we are prepared to engage. Do you have any other instructions or intel regarding the occupants of the vehicle? Over."

"Negative, Wolf 6, it's just a bus, probably has a few whiny kids in it. Should be easy for you to take care. Eagle 5 out." The com ended with an echoing click.

"We've been played." Scarecrow said, quickly running through our options as he paced in the small aisle.

"Jinx, radio Ajax and tell him to get everyone else onboard, and then I want you to use those ears of yours to find Falcon 6's channel and get in touch with them, chances are if our team has been compromised so has theirs.

As I sent the message to Ajax, Scarecrow moved up front to where the bus driver, an older man, was sitting patiently.

"Sir, if I may ask a favor of you, we would appreciate it if you would be kind enough to turn the bus around and follow the loop back to the Space Center before returning." He asked in his usual eloquent speech.

"Well that depends, have anything for me?" The bus driver inquired with a wink.

"Ah, sir, you drive a hard bargain." Scarecrow sighed with a mournful shake of his head as he dug through his rucksack and retrieved a small box of much-coveted Coco Puffs. Don't ask.

The bus driver grinned as the box was deposited in his hand and prepared to turn the bus on to the side road just ahead as soon as the rest of our team was taken care of.

Scarecrow certainly had a way with persuasion. Some of us had argued that his callsign ought to be Odysseus or Silver-Tongue, but after the story he told about that scarecrow, well there was no competition.

Anyway, Ajax ushered the rest of our team onto the bus, Mouse and Slinky, our Bravo Search, taking the time to return the log to the woods before boarding.

The expressions of surprise varied on the faces of my teammates as they came on, curious as to what the hold up was, obviously they hadn't been expecting a bunch of soldiers either. Scarecrow dispersed the team throughout the bus, standing them where they could best watch the annoyed soldiers and prevent trouble.

I was left in the front listening to the radio as Scarecrow stood beside me waiting for news.

I flipped through the channels, listening for the telltale buzz, or better yet an actual communication, that would betray the channel the opposing team was using.

Technically we weren't supposed to contact each other on missions such as this one when we were competing, but Scarecrow was counting on the fact that they would most likely join with us when they realized what was happening.

By a stroke of luck I happened onto their channel just as Cheese and Striker, by the sound of it, were finishing discussing something.

"Wolf 6 to Falcon 6." I sent, a surprised pause in answer before my earpiece came to life again.

"Wolf 6? How the hell did you get our channel?" Striker asked incredulously.

"Lucky guess." I told him quickly. "You might be in danger."

"What are you talking about?"

"Our team was set up, which means your team was probably as well. We've got the situation under wraps for now, but you all should be on the look out."

There was a pregnant pause before the channel opened again. Presumably Striker was talking with his PL. But when the channel did open there was no reply for a while, merely the faint sporadic popping of paintball gun fire.

"It's too late, they're on us. You guys better get the hell away from wherever it is you are because you're next." Cheese's gasping voice came through before the channel clicked off again and was silent.

I looked up at Scarecrow who was still watching me as the bus drew near the Space Center.

"Too late, there's nothing we can do for them."

"Damn." He said, putting his face in his hands.

"Would someone please tell us what is going on?" A man's voice, filled with irritation, came from the soldiers.

Scarecrow glared at him. "Who are you?"

The man stood. He was tanned and well built, his dark hair was buzzed and a bit of stubble graced his jaw. "I am Major William Lennox, and that is Sir to you."

"I don't give a rat's ass about your rank, Sir." Scarecrow said, drawing himself up, though he paled a bit. "My responsibility to my team is a bit more important at the moment."

The major stared at Scarecrow for a long moment, the rest of us watching them with wide eyes, before sitting down with a nod and an unhappy expression on his face.

"Somebody's got issues." The large black man beside him said with a snicker.

"Stop please." Scarecrow ordered the bus driver, who complied and stopped the large vehicle with a slight jerk and accompanying screech.

We had nearly returned to the place where we had originally boarded. To our left was a large grassy area. It had once been a small lake, so now it was low land and filled with tall grasses and weeds.

"Everybody out!" Scarecrow commanded, taking charge of our team.

I was out third since I'm Lead 1, part of the two-man frontal security team.

We waited for our team to assemble, creating a clock face perimeter like we normally would after a danger crossing and waited till the bus was long gone with it's angry cargo before moving off, crouching as we jogged.

I followed about ten feet behind Pyro, the assistant Point.

We entered the woods at the northern-most point, a fairly narrow area. Keeping down, we followed along a small, seldom used path that ran along the edge of the creek. Shouting and gunfire could be heard from the invisible POW camp just across the water, the other team apparently already there.

We ignored the noise, trying to watch out for the guards, or worse, the soldiers who had most definitely already arrived. There was no one is sight. Absolutely no one.

Have you ever had that feeling, the one where you know there is someone or something looking for you with evil intentions, and you know they're out there, and that if they find you, you're going to be in the worst pain imaginable, but you can't see them? It's not a good feeling. It makes you jumpy, though it does give you a nice adrenalin rush.

After at least a half hour of crawling through brambles and thorns and paranoidly watching the paths, we made it to the point where a small stream met the larger creek, creating a sort of miniature ravine with steep sides that you either had to climb down and then up the other side or just jump to the opposite bank and crawl up. There was a footbridge of course, but bridges are a major no-no.

We crossed one at a time, Tiny and I going first to provide security for the rest of the team, the slightly muddy bank adding a new orangish color to our clothes. We continued on for about five meters after everyone was across, and then we stopped again at the sight of something new in the campground area. Make that many somethings.

Now, I'll be the very first to tell you, I know nothing about cars. I mean, sure, I can play around with them, fix things up, but I couldn't tell you the difference between a Camry and a Camarro. But even I knew those were some pretty sweet cars.

Their exteriors shown brightly in the Alabama sun, probably because a new paint job or a fresh wash, and they were just sitting in the middle of the clearing in no specific pattern, as though their owners had just parked them and walked off. They certainly weren't military cars though, well maybe that truck, it was a monster if I ever saw one, biggest pick-up I'd ever seen.

"What the hell is going on?" Scarecrow asked, not for the first time, as he made his way to the front of the line where the rest of us were gaping at the cars.

"This mission is so fucked up." He said as he caught sight of the gleaming vehicles sitting innocently in the sun. "All right. We need to find out what is going on and try to rescue the others. But we can't keep having to look over our shoulders for these guys looking for us."

I suddenly had an idea, remembering a game of airsoft that I had played with my brothers and friends a few years before. "Hey, Scarecrow! I think I have an idea." I told him quietly, searching the area for a suitable location.

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow, probably willing to listen to anything at that point.

"We send someone up a tree with good cover. They'll have one of the mikes with them. That way they can keep watch on our team and lookout for the enemy and they can radio in if there's an approaching threat or something they need to watch out for."

"Perfect." Scarecrow said grinning, his face lightening up. "You're probably the best candidate then since you already know how to use the mike and you're small."

He laughed as I scowled at his reference to my height, or lack thereof. Ok, so I'm short, no need to make fun of it.

He turned around in place, searching for something. "Aha!" He found what he was looking for.

"Come here, Jinx." He said, leading me to the base of a tree that was just beyond the perimeter we had set up. He bent down and held out his palms as though he were giving me a leg up. "Up you get."

I placed a foot into his cupped hands and he boosted me into the air, just high enough that I could grasp one of the lower branches of the pine and pull myself into the tree.

"Pyro!" He called quietly. The blond assistant point looked up from his position on the ground and crept over, eyeing the woods nearby as he went.

"Sir?"

"Let me have those binoculars, that way Jinx will have an easier time spotting aggressors."

Pyro handed the pair over and returned to his former position.

Scarecrow looked up at me.

"Catch!"

Fortunately I caught them and didn't fumble. I looked through them over the surrounding area.

"You guys better get moving!" I whispered into my mike, Ajax looked up at me from the opposite side of the perimeter. "There's a team of eight heading this way fast from the West."

Ajax relayed the message to Scarecrow who assembled the patrol line and moved out in less than a minute, a wave of gratitude sent in my direction, and I was alone again save for the strange array of cars in the nearby clearing.

* * *

A group of men sat in a locked room. The lights were off and no one spoke.

Suddenly a digital screen sprang to life in the middle of the room, rotating slowly so that all had a good look at it.

**Profile Analysis:**

Bright red words appeared on the bluish screen flashing briefly before disappearing and being replaced by new data.

**Designation: Scarecrow**

**Name: Andrew Bates**

**Age: 18**

**Born: 1/20/91**

**Residence: Houston, Texas**

**Height: 6'4"**

**Weight: 186 lbs.**

**Team: Green Hornets**

**Position: Patrol Leader, Alpha 2 Pilot**

**Military Branch of Interest: USAF**

"This one we should consider. He has strong leadership skills and is an above-average pilot."

"He needs to learn respect for his superiors." Another muttered.

"Oh come on Will, let it go, the kid was in a tough position."

Another profile was brought onto the screen.

**Designation: Jinx**

**Name: Jessica Lindon**

**Age: 18**

**Born: 12/21/90**

**Residence: Versailles, Kentucky**

**Height: 5'2"**

**Weight: 112 lbs.**

**Team: Green Hornets  
**

**Position: Lead 1, Alpha 1 RIO**

**Military Branch of Interest: USN**

"She's a good one too, though not much of a pilot. 'Hide says she's been up in that tree for the past four hours keeping her team one step ahead of ours."

"You gotta admit, that was good thinking on her part."

"Yeah, have they found her yet? I'm sure they know by now those kids have eyes in the sky, no pun intended."

"Oh they know all right, they just can't find her. The twins have been sending in messages about how funny it is to watch them search around right under her nose."

"Is that all we're getting from this group?"

"There might be one or two more we should look at."

The screen changed again.

**Designation: Ajax**

**Name: Simon Johnson**

**Age: 17**

**Born: 10/3/91**

**Residence: Fort Myers, Florida**

**Height: 6'3"**

**Weight: 175 lbs.**

**Team: Green Hornets  
**

**Position: Trail 1, Alpha 3 RIO**

**Military Branch of Interest: N/A**

"He's still in high school, but it might be good to keep a tab open. Could be useful next year."

There were mutters of agreement.

**Designation: Striker**

**Name: Jacob Matthews**

**Age: 17**

**Born: 9/19/91**

**Residence: London, England  
**

**Height: 6'4"**

**Weight: 180**

**Team: Jolly Rogers  
**

**Position: Trail 2, Alpha 2 Pilot**

**Military Branch of Interest: USAF**

"This one's another we might look into."

"Are we agreed then?"

"Yeah, we'll talk to those two kids after graduation."

"Very well, gentlemen, this meeting is adjourned."

* * *

**Author's Note:** How was it? Let me know and I'll whip out another chapter as soon as possible if y'all like it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **Yes, it has been awhile. I apologize. I've been working on a lot of other stuff, but finally decided to write out another chapter for this, so here it is. Hopefully the next update will be out fairly soon!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own transformers or aviation challenge. Just my measly little ocs

* * *

I struggled to suppress another yawn and shifted stiffly as I scanned the woods and kept track of my team's progress. According to my watch it was approaching 0100 hours, and I had been in the tree since about 1500 hours, or 3:00 PM.

"Jinx to Ajax." I whispered into my mouthpiece.

"Yeah?" He replied after a moment, his own tiredness coming through loud and clear. I suppose that compared to them and the team in the POW camp I didn't have much to complain about, but my butt sure was sore from sitting on that branch for so long.

"You've got two incoming, probably scouts, coming at you from the south."

There was a pause before: "Which way's south?"

"Your left."

"Oh, thanks." He ended the connection with a click and I was returned to silence.

My eyes were just drifting shut when Ajax's voice buzzed in my ear unexpectedly.

"Ajax to Jinx."

"I read you, what is it?" I asked, more alert now as his voice seemed a bit sharper than usual.

"A bunch of them soldiers just crossed one of the smaller creeks, it looks like they're heading your way, you might have been found out."

I was about to reply when I heard a nearby sound of something snapping some branches. I shifted my position and peered around the edge of the trunk. They were so close I didn't need to the binoculars. Six of the soldiers were creeping around the edge of the clearing, two keeping a look out on the area, the others scanning the trees. Oh shit.

I kept as still as I possibly could, hoping that the many branches of the tree I was situated in, my camo, and the darkness would keep me hidden. Unfortunately I'm really not a lucky person, in fact I'd go as far as to say I'm unlucky, see the reason for the callsign now? And of course, it was the moment that they were nearly directly underneath me that what little luck I had finally decided to take a vacation. No, they didn't just look up and see me staring down at them, though that would have happened given a few more minutes. I, being the genius that I am, decided to try to stand up and edge my way to the other side of the tree in the hopes that they would miss me. However, it would seem that when a branch of a fairly old tree, has been under quite a bit of stress and unusual weight, no I am not fat, it doesn't do well to sudden shifts and movement. All this I discovered when, upon assuming a crouched position, the previously creaking piece of wood decided to break with a terrific bang, leaving me temporarily suspended in mid air and six soldiers staring up at me with cocked paintball guns.

A split-second later I learned another valuable lesson: humans can't float.

Consequently I was sent crashing, all twenty feet from my perch to the ground, hitting every single branch on the way down before finally crashing with a loud thump on the stick and rock covered earth below. Pain does not cover it. Soldiers apparently don't care.

I was surrounded seconds after I hit the ground, several guns pointed at my body, not that I noticed as I gasped and wheezed for breath, not even able to move my arms to clutch my aching ribs.

One of them pulled me to my knees and set about tying my hands behind my back with a strong stretch of cording. Another was radioing someone, while the others watched the perimeter. After he finished, the guy who tied me up unhooked my mike from my ear and stowed it in one of his pockets, before hoisting me to my feet and keeping an iron grip on my left arm as I continued to struggle to breath properly.

"What do we do with her?" The soldier beside me asked, looking to the one who had taken my equipment.

"Just throw her in the back of the truck, the others should be easy to get now that they're blind."

The soldier shrugged and threw me over his shoulder, ignoring my coughs and spluttering, and proceeded to walk to the strange array of vehicles. I was promptly dumped in the back of the monster pickup, and in a matter of moments I was alone once more.

I'm not sure how long it took for me to recover from the fall. I could do nothing but lay in the strangely warm bed of the truck panting and coughing. At times shouting and the popping of paintball guns could be heard in the general direction that I had last seen the rest of my team, but by the time I managed to sit up on my knees the woods had returned to relative quiet, and I really couldn't do more than hope that the silence meant they had eluded capture and were making their way towards me. I hate feeling helpless.

I fiddled with the taunt ropes that bound my wrists and feet, the latter had somehow escaped my notice until I first began my efforts to sit up. That soldier sure knew how to tie knots. It seemed that the more I tried to loosen the bindings, the tighter they grew. Eventually I was forced to stop my efforts in the fear that the circulation in my hands and ankles would be cut off. I slowly succumbed to the pull of sleep, first tipping over sideways, resuming my initial position of being slumped on the bed of the truck, and the gradually slipping off, lulled by the chirping of cicadas and the rustling of the trees.

I woke as dawn was beginning, the world still bathed in a grey light. I could hear voices approaching and the light crunch of gravel under heavy feet. Lying completely still, I waited for the owners of the feet and voices to reach me. They came to a stop right beside the truck.

"I still say we should have talk with those men, 'Hide." One voice was saying. "They shouldn't have treated her so roughly after falling out of the tree."

"Relax, Ratchet," the other voice, this one rougher, more of a growl really. "She's training for the military for Primus' sake! They practically coddled her."

The other grumbled something about wrenches before the conversation ended.

"Up, kid." The gruff voice ordered. "I know you're awake."

I remained still, not sure if he was bluffing.

"All right, so you want to do this the hard way."

"Ironhide!" The first voice, Ratchet, protested to whatever the other man was about to do.

One of the two apparently climbed up into the bed of the truck beside me, though the beast didn't move at all with the added weight. The sound of a knife being flipped open reached my ears and my eyes shot open in shock to meet the unnatural blue gaze of a mid-aged man with dark brown hair. He was wearing a white doctor's coat and had a rather stern countenance.

He raised a thick eyebrow at me and reached behind me, swiftly cutting through the tight ropes.

"There, that's better isn't it?"

I sat up warily, rubbing my sore wrists and pressing myself up against the side of the truck, only to regret it moments later as the metal collided painfully with what were most certainly bruises from my rather spectacular fall from the tree.

"Right then," he began, sitting back on his heels and regarding me with a calculating expression. "You'll need to remove at least your first layer of clothing."

I stared at him blankly. "What?"

"I need to assess the damage to your ribs, just to make sure nothing serious happened to them."

He reached towards me and I moved out of reach of his long fingers, causing him to glare ferociously at me.

"Oh leave it, Ratch'," A voice behind me drawled, causing me to jump and jar my torso once again. "You can look at her once we get back to the main facilities."

This man was huge, as in brawn and muscles that put Safety to shame. He was tall and had the same blazing blue eyes as Ratchet (perhaps they were siblings?), and his black hair was cropped short in a standard military cut.

"Where is the rest of my team?" I asked finally, wondering what had happened to them.

"Eh, they were all rounded up about twenty minutes after you were knocked out of commission." Ironhide said, leaning against the truck unconcernedly. "Now, do you think you could hurry up, the rest of the kiddies will be heading up to the main tent thing soon and I'm hungry."

I shut my mouth and stiffly stood, wobbling slightly and grimacing at the pain in my sore muscles. I carefully hopped out of the back of the truck, landing a bit unsteadily on the ground. Ratchet followed me, still staring at my ribs with an unhappy look on his face.

"Wait here a moment, I'll grab a stretcher out of the back of my vehicle." He proceeded towards the bright yellow, hummer ambulance that sat on the other edge of the clearing before I had a chance to open my mouth.

"What do you mean a stretcher?" I asked indignantly, making him pause. "I can walk perfectly fine."

"You are injured, and until I have a chance to assess the extent of the damage I would rather not risk it. You could have a fractured rib for all we know."

"Well I know that I can walk and that a couple of bruises aren't going to inhibit me whatsoever." I stated a bit rudely.

"Really?" Ironhide asked with a chuckle, jabbing me in the ribs and earning himself a disapproving glare from the bad-tempered medic.

I couldn't stop a pained squeak from exiting my mouth, nor could I help clutching the area and doubling over, but in the end Ratchet finally conceded in allowing me to walk, so long as I stopped for a break whenever I was in pain.

So we began our terribly long one hundred meter walk back to the Bubble (the 'main tent thing')

"So kid, what's your name?" Ironhide asked as we reached the gate that would lead to the main area.

"Jinx." I said shortly, not happy with either of them.

"No your real name."

"You're going by your callsign, so can I." While Ratchet could have been the medic's last name, Ironhide had to be the burly man's callsign. It suited him too well. Either that or someone had a terrible sense of humor.

There was no further conversation between us, and within minutes we were entering the large open space that was the Bubble.

The other team, the Jolly Rogers, was already waiting under the pavilion. They were kneeling on the floor in front of their team leader, their hands up behind their heads. A number of the military men from the bus the previous afternoon were milling around, the major was discussing something with Red Bull, the camp commandant.

Ratchet and Ironhide escorted me towards them, and they stopped talking as we drew near.

"Jinx," Red Bull began when we stopped in front of her. "I hear you had a rather nasty fall this morning."

"Yes ma'am." I stated, already at attention.

"Have you been checked by Doctor Ratchet?"

"No ma'am."

She raised an eyebrow at me, already frowning.

"With respect, ma'am. I would like to wait until we have been debriefed from the mission before I am inspected."

I hoped that she would allow me to remain with my team until the mission was officially over.

"Very well. But as soon as you are debriefed you are to report to Doctor Ratchet and follow his instructions to the t, is that understood?"

"Yes, ma'am." I said before allowing Shaggy, my team leader, to lead me to where my team was to be positioned.

Once at the spot I sank down to my knees and assumed the captive position that the other team was in, ignoring the pull on my ribs.

The rest of my team, the Green Hornets, was brought in minutes later, lining up beside me in rows. And then we waited for the debriefing.

It was a rather standard debriefing, considering the strangeness of the mission. We were allowed to take a normal seat on the ground, and were then given a brief outline of the strengths, weaknesses, strategies, and problems observed. After about fifteen minutes we were released, the others gratefully climbing onto a bus to be taken to the space center for morning meal, while I reluctantly followed Doctor Ratchet to the Mach II classroom to be evaluated.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:** well, that was quicker than I expected. Be warned, the next update may be a lot longer. I'm not too terribly happy with this one, I think it was a bit rushed, but that might just be me.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Transformers or AC

* * *

"Ow. Owww. Ouch!" I smirked as Doctor Ratchet glared at me.

He had been constantly poking and prodding me for the past fifteen or so minutes, asking me those annoying doctor questions like: "On a scale of one to ten how much does this hurt?"

Consequently I had gotten tired of it and had been answering him with variations of the word 'ow', leaving it up to him on how he would rank the pain.

He finally sat back in his metal chair, one hand rubbing down the side of his face in annoyance; his strange blue eyes scrunched shut.

"I give up!" he groaned. "This is why I hate having stubborn teenagers as patients!"

I immaturely stuck my tongue out at him and then flinched as a tingly sensation ran through my body, causing me to shiver at the uncomfortable feeling. What the hell had that been?

He stood and waited for me to join him before walking towards the door, not telling me what he had determined about my injuries.

He strode toward Red Bull, who was surrounded by a number of strangers, most of whom did not look very military, but I ignored them, more concerned with my rumbling stomach, the aching of my ribs, and the need to fall into a nice, rock-hard cot. She was talking to a tall man, perhaps in his forties, with dark, graying hair, and the same unbelievably blue eyes as the other two I had met. How big was this family anyway? He held himself in a way that could only be described as noble, an air of leadership about him, as corny as that sounds.

They ended their conversation as we stopped in front of them.

"Well?" Red Bull asked him, eyeing me critically.

"As far as I could tell there's nothing serious, just major bruising that is going to be painful for awhile."

"Good. Jinx, there won't be another bus for about ten minutes, so your team will be headed back by the time you get to the Space Center. Therefore you are going to eat with these people and return with them. Afterwards your team has been given until the afternoon to rest and recuperate in your bay. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am." I replied with a nod.

She dismissed me and I headed over to the bleachers, collapsing onto them and closing my eyes for a brief break while I waited for the bus.

The noisy vehicle arrived far too soon for my liking, I had to practically drag myself to the line the soldiers had made in front of the open door.

It wasn't until I was about to enter the bus that I saw Doctor Ratchet's ambulance sitting by the side of the Bubble. When had he driven it up? Perhaps Ironhide had while his friend or brother, or whoever he was, was torturing me.

"Keep a move on, kid." Said macho man growled from behind me, using his huge hands to practically lift me onto the bus.

I stumbled onboard, edging my way into the first open row, and remained standing as I was supposed to. Last to arrive was the major from the previous morning, Major Lennox if I remembered correctly. The doors shut with a pop behind him and he raised a brow at me. Fortunately the bus driver, a loud-mouthed woman who liked to joke with the counselors, saved me from embarrassment.

"You have to order her to be seated." She explained, smacking her pink bubble gum. "The kids ain't allowed to sit or stand until the officer in charge tells them to."

"Oh." The major said. "Uh, you can sit, and when we arrive you can stand too."

I almost snickered at his poor attempt but managed a "Yes, sir!" before sitting down and leaning against the window for the five minute ride.

When we arrived I stood with the rest of the occupants of the bus and followed the major off, stopping to give a customary: "thank you, bus driver, ma'am." before exiting.

After the last soldier stepped from the bus, the major headed in the direction of the visitor's entrance, followed by the rest of his men.

"Um, Major Lennox!" I called before they got too far away.

"Yes?" He asked looking back at me.

"You're going the wrong way."

He blinked, as though not sure I was telling the truth, but then turned around and gestured for me to lead on.

I grinned when my back was turned to him and proceeded up the stairs in front of me to the security entrance. Being a camper comes with special privileges, not the least of which are getting to go through the security clearance areas and causing tourists to be awe-struck by the kids in camo covered in mud.

I swung the door open and waved to the security guards as I walked through the rooms to the main cafeteria, trying not to get too much dried mud on the floors.

I led the way around the outer edge of the long tables, Lennox and his men following in a duck line behind me. When I reach the stacks of trays I grabbed the driest one I could see and automatically shook the excess water off, and then made directly for the nearly empty containers that held the cereal boxes. I dug as far down as I could, pushing boxes out of my way, searching for one certain prize. Ah, there it was! A triumphant smile was on my face as I retrieved a solitary box of coco-puffs. I heard a cough behind me and turned around to see Major Lennox and many of his men staring at me. I shrugged sheepishly.

"It's an AC thing."

I turned and walked to the food line, snagging a pack of plastic silverware as I went. It was French toast day, one of the better ones if I do say so myself. I loaded a cup of scrambled eggs onto my tray and carefully selected a plate of French toast that looked the least soggy. As the rest of the soldiers filed thru the line I went back to the large cafeteria and found the cleanest table, setting my tray at the nearest end. As the soldiers filed out slowly I went back to where the drink machines were, taking a Styrofoam cup and filling it with icy water. Soft drinks were only allowed at lunch and dinner, and only then after two cups of water, and I wasn't one for juice boxes or milk. I stood by my seat in parade rest, waiting while the others seated themselves and began talking.

"You can sit." Lennox said exasperatedly as he sat across from me.

"Yes, sir." I said, moving around the seat to sit in it.

"You actually pay to come here and do all this crap?" He asked as he popped open a carton of milk.

Ironhide's gruff voice interrupted me as he sat by the major: "I rather like it, Lennox. Nice and disciplined, my kind of place."

"That's just because you're a hard aft." A woman's voice followed his remark; it's owner, a gorgeous woman with long, black hair, complimented by a thin streak of royal blue, a leather motorcycle jacket, and the same brilliant blue eyes sat down beside him, giving him a glare that could rival Doctor Ratchet's before turning to me with a genuine smile and extending a slim hand.

"The name's Chromia, and this lunk-head is the fortunate male whom I decided to marry."

"Jinx." I replied, surprised by her extremely firm handshake and the fact that the two were married. Well, that shot down the family relation of the blue eyes idea.

"So you're the chick who fell outta the tree!" A loud, laughing voice said from behind me. I looked over my shoulder with a glare, only to see the large black man who had been sitting next to Major Lennox on the bus.

"Hey, don't take offense kid. The way I heard it, the fall was rather spectacular, did you really hit every branch on the way down?"

I cracked my jaw unconsciously, silently taking note of his name, Epps, in order to remind myself to pay him back later.

"Leave the kid along, Bobby." Lennox ordered, finally taking pity on me.

I finished the remains of my breakfast quickly, I'm a fast eater, and sat in silence, occasionally sipping the rest of my water.

"Do you ride?" I eventually asked Chromia during a lull in the conversation.

She looked up in surprise, and I nodded at her jacket.

"Oh, yeah, a Suzuki B-King."

"I don't know what it is, I'm not too good with vehicle types." I admitted apologetically.

She smiled. "It was in the clearing you were hanging around, the bike that was the same color as my hair." She gestured to the colored streak.

"Ah, looked fast." I replied, remembering the impressive looking motorcycle.

"Oh it is," she grinned wickedly. "Especially with a few special modifications."

Eventually Lennnox decided breakfast was over, and luckily remembered to order me up. I once again led the way to the disposal area and then out of the building and onto the just arrived bus. Now that my stomach was filled I just wanted to get back to my nice, warm bed and sleep for the next week.

I nearly rejoiced when the Bubble came into view after the seemingly long bus trip.

After we were unloaded I began making my way up to the Habitat, where the bays, flight sims, classrooms, and Centrifuge were located, when a familiar voice called out to me, asking me to wait. Chromia, as well as two other women were walking towards me.

"Yeah?" I asked when the reached me.

"Your CO wants you to show us where we'll be staying." Chromia explained. "These are my sister's by the way, Arcee on the left and Flareup on the right."

Both shared several facial features with Chromia, the same bone structure and small nose and blue eyes. Arcee had a scarlet red streak in her hair, and Flareup's was pink.

"Let me guess, you ride the red bike," I pointed to Arcee. "and you ride the pink?"

"Yup." Arcee grinned. "a Ducati 848."

"And mine's an MV Augusta F4." Flareup added.

"Great. So which bay are you in?"

"Cochran." The three replied at the same time.

"Follow me." I said, leading the way into the large building. "I'm in Earhart, so we're right next door."

We walk down the hallway, and then thru the double doors and to the left where the female bays were located in a separate hall. I showed them their bay, and where the shower room was before returning to my own bay where the other Mach III girls were already asleep on their bunks. I crept about as quietly as I could, not bothering going across the hall to the bathrooms to change. I finally collapsed onto my bunk, not even bothering to get under the covers. Lots of questions filtered thru my mind as I drifted into sleep, the most pressing being: what is with all of the blue eyes?

{break}

In a certain locked room, several persons sat in discussion. The profiles of two teenagers played across the screen. One, a classically good-looking boy with brown hair and blue eyes and an easy smile on his face, the callsign Scarecrow beeping underneath the slightly grainy picture, the other, a pretty girl with light blond hair and grey eyes above the callsign Jinx.

"So, have we made our decision?" A man on another monitor asked, the words: SECDEF J. KELLER along the bottom edge.

"I believe so, secretary." Another voice answered him.

"I still say she's a terrible patient." Someone growled from the back.

"All the more reason she's a perfect fit." His friend answered, earning himself a whack on the head.

"Very well gentlemen, this final meeting is adjourned. I will meet you at our HQ to be introduced to our two newest recruits within the next few weeks."

The screen blinked off and the room was emptied for the last time.


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:** Yes, it's been awhile. I've been working on a bunch of different things. As consolation, this is twice as long as the others, and the story really gets moving now.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own anything except my plot and characters

* * *

I stumbled out of my bunk, slightly disoriented. I could hear the light snoring of one of the other girls. It would seem as though I was the only one awake, though I could see some sunlight peaking in between the blinds of the only window in the bay. For a second I panicked, thinking that we had some how slept in and missed morning line up. I darted towards the suitcase that was lying at the foot of my bunk, terrified at the thought of Safety coming up with gruesome punishments for us, when I was abruptly reminded of the events of the past twenty-four hours by the extremely painful feeling of soreness about my torso.

My bunk creaked as I sat down again, my face in my hands as I rubbed my tired eyes. Obviously I wasn't getting anymore sleep; we probably didn't have too much time left anyway. I grabbed a fresh change of clothes and hung my BDU top on the corner of the top half of my bunk. As I left the room, headed for the washroom, I made sure to be quiet. The other girls were still asleep, and there was no reason to interrupt them.

It was strangely quiet as I walked out into the hallway. Of course, generally there is no one in the Hab for most of the day, but when we were inside there is usually the sound of running feet or whispered chattering or a counselor giving a lecture.

The bathroom wasn't empty when I reached it; one of the three sisters, Chromia by the color of the streak in her hair, was standing by the sinks, examining herself in the mirror. I nodded to her in greeting and entered one of the stalls to get changed.

She was still there when I finished, leaning against the counter now, waiting for me apparently. She watched as I brushed my hair and braided it, staying silent until I was about to leave.

"So, you're going to the Naval Academy?" She asked.

I looked back at her in surprise, wondering how she had known, but then figured one of the counselors had blabbed.

"Yeah," I said with a nod. "Well, actually this year I'll be attending NAPS, the prep school, but there's a 95% chance of getting in after that, so I don't think I'll have any problem."

She studied me for a moment. "You ever consider doing something else in the military?"

"Nah." I said with a shake of my head. "Navy's really the only one that appealed to me."

"What about special forces, or an elite team?"

"You mean like Rangers or SEALs or something like that?" I asked, confused as to where she was directing the conversation. "Not really."

"What if the government came to you and offered you a position on an elite, top secret team?"

I smiled and shook my head again. "Probably not, I've worked too hard getting to the Academy to just drop it for something else."

She spoke again as I started walking out the door.

"What if they guaranteed that if you would agree to a trial period, you would be given a spot at the Academy during the last year you were eligible to enter, with the operational experience kept on your record?"

I'll admit, it took me awhile to answer that one, but her offer, if it were even an offer, was too good to be true.

"Sorry, it'd still be no."

She didn't try to stop me as I headed back to my bay. Once I had quietly shut the door I shoved my dirty clothes into my suitcase and lay down on my bunk again, staring up at the red bars and springs of the bunk above me.

* * *

Ironhide was just reporting to Major Lennox that Scarecrow was interested in the prospect of serving on an elite spec ops team rather than his original plan of joining the Air Force when a rather disgruntled Chromia appeared in the room.

"Didn't go as well as you thought it would?" Lennox asked, raising an eyebrow at the expression on her face.

"Hardly." She growled. "She's pretty dedicated to attending the Academy."

"So there's no chance of her signing on?

Chromia sighed, sitting in one of the many chairs in the room. "She hesitated when I proposed a trial period. She signs on for a couple of years, and then is guaranteed a spot at the Academy during the last year she is eligible to enter should she decide she would still rather go there."

"Do you think the SecDef would go for it?" Epps asked, having entered the room at the tail end of the conversation, two mugs of black coffee in his hands. He handed one to Lennox before taking a swig. "I mean, that's a lot to give, a guaranteed spot at the Academy."

Lennox gratefully accepted the warm drink. "Do you think we're making a mistake recruiting so young? I mean, these kids are barely out of high school, just a year older than Sam and Mikaela."

Epps shrugged. "Being as selective as we are it kinda makes sense, the younger they are the longer we'll have them. Sides, it gives them more time to get used to the idea of our _friends_," he nodded in Ironhide and Chromia's direction. "Before fighting anything like that."

"So, we've got the boy interested, now how are we gonna get the girl?" Ironhide asked, joining the two men, Chromia right behind him.

"Chromia?" Lennox asked, wondering if she had any ideas.

"We might try to send an official liaison to her home in the next few weeks, offer her the deal again and see if she bites."

"I don't know, seems a bit risky." Epps commented, taking another sip from his mug.

"I agree with Chromia, though it's a slim chance. Plus she'd murder me if I disagreed." Ironhide muttered the last bit, earning himself a whack on the head from his mate much to the amusement of the soldiers.

* * *

**2 weeks later**

A team from a certain spec ops team departed from their large cargo plane in a fancy array of vehicles after they had touched down at the Bluegrass Airport outside of Lexington, Kentucky. The group was a bit larger than had originally been planned as Major Lennox's wife had wanted to have some vacation time and a few of the younger members of the team had wanted to stretch their wheels, so to speak.

The first thing they noticed coming off the place was the heat. Just standing at the doorway was an immense difference, the temperature instantly make hotter. The humidity was something many of the party were not used to, coming from the west where, while it was hot, the heat was dry.

"Where we going, Rob?" Lennox asked, tugging uncomfortably on the collar of his uniform, beads of sweat already forming on the covered skin of his neck.

"Eh, gimme a moment." The taller man said from behind him. He fiddled with some papers, finally finding the one he was looking for. "According to this Ms. Jessica Lindon, otherwise known as Jinx at camp, works at a nearby horse racing facility during the summer. I'd say we check there first." He handed the sheet to the Major who examined it briefly before turning to the rest of the part.

"All right! Listen up!" He shouted, getting the attention of the chattering people around them. "Those who don't want come with us are free to do what you want but two rules! One, keep your comms open at all times, and two, do not cause any trouble! So much as the slightest misstep will land you in punishment detail for the next three months. Is that clear?"

There were a number of confirmations before a few people and vehicles split from the group, leaving the Lennox family, Master Chief Epps, some soldiers, and the remaining vehicles to locate the potential recruit.

"Let's roll out." Lennox ordered, opening the large Topkick's passenger door for his wife who was carrying their baby daughter, before jogging to the other side and climbing in himself, the door shutting firmly behind him.

"So, where we headed, big guy?" He asked the truck, plugging the address of the racetrack into the GPS system. "Well, that's convenient." He stated seconds later in surprise when the result showed that the track was directly across from the airport. The large black truck led the way off the tarmac and onto the main road, stopping at the light before proceeding thru the entrance to the Keeneland Race Course.

The drive along the small road that led from the front gate, thru what had once been an estate belonging to the Keene family, and to the actual racetrack took only a few minutes. The scenery was pretty, but Sarah Lennox was really the only one to take any note of it, the others to focused on the mission at hand.

There was plenty of parking at the track, there wasn't a meet going on, so apart from trainers, grooms, and a few exercise riders the place was fairly deserted.

The group made their way through the grandstand, sweeping by the security with a quick show of their clearance passes. The barns and stabling area were beyond the saddling paddock, so they headed their first, not sparing the grand stone building much of a look.

It ended up taking longer than they had expected to find the person they were looking for. The stabling area of the track was more crowded then they had been made to believe. The July yearling sales had only just finished, so there was a mass amount of young horses still waiting to be picked up, as well as trainers, owners, and others. Aside from that there were racehorses being hot-walked, bathed, led on a off the racetrack, and a myriad of grooms cleaning and feeding and mucking. After several failed attempts at garnering the location of Ms. Lindon, first going to a section of stalls, then one of the paddocks, then to the clubhouse, the were finally directed to the track itself, to ask an elderly gentlemen in a ball-cap who was standing against the rail of the track, a sharp look on his features and a stop-watch clasped in his right hand.

"Would you be Max Engals?" Will asked as they reached the man.

"Depends on whose askin." The man replied, never taking his eyes off the track.

"My name is Major William Lennox. I'm looking for Ms. Jessica Lindon, and I heard you might be able to tell me where she is."

"So, you're the bastards who are takin my girl away from me?" The man asked, a bite in his voice. "Beggin your pardon ma'am." He added at the end for Mrs. Lennox's benefit.

"Actually, man, we've got a bit of a different proposition for her." Epps said in response, eyeing the old codger with some trepidation.

"Well, she's comin around the bend over yonder, so I suppose you'll see her soon enough." The trainer commented, holding the stopwatch higher and clicking it.

The Lennox's, Epps, and several of their companions leaned over the railing to see what the old man was watching.

A dimly familiar figure was barely visible coming around the far turn, her small frame was dwarfed by the massive horse she was riding. They picked up speed as they drew nearer, charging into a flat out run as they drove past, nearly a blur to the eyes of the spectators.

Max snapped the stop-watch as the horse and rider passed, a satisfied look on his face as he regarded the time. They watched and waited as she slowed the horse to a slow canter and then to a trot and walk before turning back and heading towards them.

* * *

I stood up a bit in my stirrups, hunching over Brimstone's neck as I assumed a proper, and uncomfortable, jockey position. His powerful muscles were bunched beneath me as we walked to the starting point of our run, he broke into a trot every now and then in an attempt to go faster, pulling against the tight hold I had on the short racing reigns.

Max wanted me to breeze him today, to let him run almost to the extent of his full potential for a stretch of the track. Of course, knowing the testy stallion we'd end up going all out, and I'd get a talking to about using too much of his strength and tiring him out.

I lined as up, adjusting my racing goggles over my eyes as the track was a bit sloppy from a recent summer thundershower. Letting him out slowly, we moved into a smooth canter, his long strides broken by a playful half-buck before he settled into his place. Luckily I had been exercising the steel grey Thoroughbred colt most of the summer and was well used to his excitable antics.

The colt, a 16'2 hands high, muscular, powerhouse of a horse who was registered as Brimstone Glory, had had a sporadic racing start as a two year old, winning some, losing others. There was no denial that he had the speed and strength needed to be a champion, but while his massive size and classy looks afforded him a lot of attention, his attitude needed improvement and he was at times exceedingly difficult to control even for the most experienced jockeys.

I had first met the unruly colt at the beginning of the summer. Max had approached me on being his primary rider after doing various jobs and exercise riding over the years, and he thought I'd get along well with the stubborn, ill-behaved, speed machine; apparently he thought we were a lot alike, I failed to see the resemblance. The owners wanted him ready for the Triple Crown next year, and I had to agree that he certainly had a great chance if it were determined on sheer size and power alone, but he needed a lot of training in listening to his jockey. We had a rough start, me taking more spills than actually staying on the horse, but finally we'd had a break through and he obeyed me about half the time. He was a stubborn, excitable, pushy colt, but I'd grown to love him, and now as I was sitting there enjoying his smooth gaits and powerful muscles it was difficult to imagine not being able to appreciate him.

He snorted and pulled at the reigns, but I kept him in check and fought back as he shook his head, keeping him at a steady pace. We reach the marker pole Max had set for me, and as we passed it I let him go, holding tight as I could and crouching further over his neck as we shot forward, the sheer power of his long strides eating up the track and spraying mud all over us as we charged down the back stretch. The wind whistled in my ears, and had I not had my mouth clamped shut to avoid biting my tongue or getting mud in it I would have laughed in sheer exhilaration.

As we crossed the finish line I began pulling back on the reigns, trying to slow him down while he fought to keep going. Thoroughbreds are bred to run, and Brimstone had inherited every bit of that desire. He bucked a bit mid-stride again as I yanked hard on the reigns, his teeth clenching the bit as he tried to take control. Finally he gave in, obediently slowing back down into a walk, albeit a fast one.

I circled him and pointed him in the direction where Max was waiting, noticing for the first time the crowd of people waiting with him.

They were too far off to make out clearly, so I settled back into the saddle, keeping a tight hold on the reigns in case he decided to bolt. It wouldn't be the first time. The third time I had rode him he had been well behaved, and the minute I relaxed after working him he took off, leaving me in the dirt after running fifty meters and continuing on around the track. Max had been furious.

My heart sank as I drew closer to my trainer, now able to see the strangers, though many weren't strangers after all. I could see Major Lennox standing next to a pretty blonde woman who held a baby in her arms, his friend Master Chief Epps on his other side. Ironhide and Chromia were in the crowd as well as a few other soldiers and several people of various heights and clothes, who, when I was near enough to confirm, had the same brilliant blue eyes as the other civilians in the group, excluding the blonde woman.

I popped my jaw, a bad habit, as I slowed Brimstone to a halt, much to his annoyance if his pawing hooves meant anything, and astutely ignored the mass of people as I waited for Max to comment.

He was looking at the stop-watch, face grim as far as I could tell, but when he looked up his eyes were smiling. "Three seconds faster than the last time you kept him under control, and he was better about stopping."

I ginned before I could stop myself, glad that we were making progress, and ran a hand fondly down his lathered neck in praise.

"Ms. Lindon," Major Lennox said suddenly. "I'd like to speak with you if you don't mind."

I was about to reply, but Max, ever my good friend no matter how grumpy he got, jumped in first.

"You can talk to her all you want, mister, but you'll do it when she's cleanin the horse up or afterwards, not while she sitting in the middle of a race track on a highly volatile animal."

Having effectively shut the major up, he ducked on the fence, slowly as to not frighten my mount, and clipped a lead shank to one of the bit rings. I kept a hold of the reigns as he led us off the track, Brimstone had taken the liberty of breaking free of a retainer's hold several times before. As we passed by the group of onlookers, the colt laid back his ears and took a bite at one of the men, the poor guy jumping back as far as he could in surprise.

I smiled a wide grin, silently praising the beast of a horse and promising him an extra carrot after I had cleaned him up.

The major and his entourage followed several yards behind us as we treaded our way through the buildings and people to the barn in the back where Max's charges were stabled. Max liked the general quiet of the back barns, preferring the peace to the hectic hubbub of the main stables.

While Max held Brimstone steady I swung myself out of the thin exercise saddle and dropped lightly onto the ground. The bruises on my ribs had faded and the pain had receded quite a bit so the jolt of the jump didn't make me wince like it had my first day back.

I ran my stirrup irons up on the leathers and released the girth, slipping the saddle off his back and depositing it on an outside rack so that the pad and girth could air and dry out a bit before getting put in the tack room.

"Do you need some help?" Lennox asked, looking a bit uncomfortable standing there doing nothing.

"It's best if you don't if you don't have a lot experience with horses, this one has a bit of an attitude problem." Max stated with a dismissive glance.

"Well in that case," a woman's voice said suddenly. "I'll be the one helping."

I looked over in surprise to see that is was the blonde woman, and I was not the only one. She gently handed Major Lennox, who I would assume was her husband, the baby, and walked towards us rolling up her sleeves as she went.

"Listen, lady, this here is a hot-blooded stallion, he's not some gentle lesson horse." Max began trying to dissuade her.

She paid him no mind and walked right up to Brimstone, holding out her hand palm up and allowing him to sniff her.

"I spent most of my summers at a ranch growing up." She stated, turning away from the colt.

He decided to take advantage of her split attention and went to snap at her before I could catch his head, but to my surprise and amusement she rapped him on the mouth with her fist before he reached her, causing him to rear up his head and snort at her in disappointment.

"Well all right then, ma'am." Max said with grudging respect. "Welcome to the team."

He led the colt over to the other side of the stables where a hose was held by a spare groom, the two of us following a good distance away from the horse's back hooves.

"I'm Sarah Lennox." She told me with a smile. "Will's my husband."

"Jessica Lindon, though I suppose you already knew that." I replied in kind, pulling off one of my riding gloves to shake her hand.

"Yes." She agreed sheepishly.

While Max kept the colt as still as possible the groom rinsed him off, and then Sarah and I were left to rub him dry before the sweat and water could dry and mat up his hair.

We finished much faster than I would have alone and soon Max was walking Brimstone back to his stall, and I was left to the mercy of Major Lennox and his crowd of people.

Sarah, I had decided, I liked. Anyone who could put up with Brimstone and Max at the same time was my kind of person.

She reclaimed her baby, a daughter named Annabelle she had told me, and we walked to the far corner of the barn and took seats on the various bales of hay.

"So, would you be willing to accept our offer?" Major Lennox started off to the point.

"What offer?" I responded, playing dumb as I was not sure to what exactly he was referring.

He glanced to Chromia and she took over.

"The last I made; you sign on for a few years, and if you decide you still want to be in the Navy you'll be free to go with a free spot at the Academy."

"What would you tell NAPS?" I asked, stalling. "I'm already committed to going. Ordinarily I wouldn't consider the offer, but to have operational experience and a guarantee of going into the Academy was better than chancing it with NAPS as there was still a chance of me not being accepted. I was wavering and they knew it.

"We'd take care of all that, there wouldn't be any trouble with that."

Of course there wouldn't be any. I bit my lip, partly ashamed of myself for considering after wanting to go to the Academy for so many years. Scarecrow was joining up, he had been allowed to tell me since I was a potential recruit or something like that, so at least there would be a friendly face. Somehow I got the idea that these people always got what they wanted.

"How long till you need an answer?" I asked finally.

"Within the next two days at the latest."

"Tell you what. I'm having a few people out to my house tomorrow, maybe you can come over, stay for the barbeque, and I'll give you my answer then." I proposed. Sure, it may have been a tad foolish inviting strangers to my home, but they were military, of some sort, and with a woman like Sarah Lennox with them, they couldn't be too bad.

Major Lennox appeared to consider the offer, turning briefly to Master Chief Epps and and few of the men behind him before smiling at me and accepting.

"I suppose I should give you the address." I began to say, but then remembered. "But of course, I guess you already have that."

That brought laughter from several. I guess they weren't that bad after all.

Suddenly my ringtone, _Lothlorien _from Lord of the Rings: the Musical, started blaring from the phone in my pocket. Mom and dad had insisted on me carrying a phone since they and my younger brother and sister were out of the country on a cruise. It was a really old piece of junk, and I never used it, but there was no arguing with my mother.

"Hello?" I asked, pushing the green button. The dang thing wasn't even a flip phone.

"Yo, Jessie!" My best friend and neighbor's voice shouted through the speaker.

"What's up, Stef?" I asked, wondering why she was bothering to call since she was supposed to pick me up any minute, as I don't have a car. Stephanie Johnson and I had known each other our whole lives. Our parents were friends, hers owning the large orchard farm next to my family's horse and cattle farm. We hadn't been close until we had both decided to 'run away' at the same time and had bumped into each other, our anger at our respective parents disappearing as it soon became a grand game of cowboys and Indians, them being the settlers trying to hunt down our red-skinned selves. It had been great fun, though afterward some rather clever, and violent, traps and attacks we had spent the summer weeding her mother's vast blueberry crops and mucking out the cattle barns. To say it was a good bonding experience would be an understatement. Needless to say, we had been besties ever since.

"Don't get mad at me, but I can't pick you up today." She said really quickly.

"Wait, what? Why not? Couldn't you have let me know earlier?" I asked, trying not to get mad at her.

"Yeah, well, there was a bit of a situation, a fox got in with the hens and well, stuff hit the fan so to speak."

I sighed, I really couldn't blame her for something like that.

"But, I do have good news!" She shouted, the squawking and clucking of hens sounding behind her.

"What's that?" I asked, pacing a bit in frustration.

"Gramps said we could use Chip and Spartacus for a hay-ride tomorrow. Now we don't have to walk all the way to the back of your farm!"

"That's great!" I exclaimed, already forgetting my ride-less situation in my excitement. We had been trying to get her grandfather to lend us his two big draft horses and large wagon for a hay-ride instead of walking.

"Yeah, though the Michaelsons can't come, so we'll have plenty of room even with your cousins there. I doubt we'll get halfway through the hotdogs on our own!" She continued, sounding a bit disappointed at the prospect of not having more people.

"Don't worry about that, I've had some late invitees and if anything we should be worried about not having enough." I remarked, glancing at the assorted group before me who were trying to appear as though they weren't listening. "Plus, Max will be there, and you know he could eat even you out of the house." I snickered at Max's responding grumble of, "I resent that!"

"Oh sweet!" She shouted into the phone, causing me to pull mine away from my ear. "Are there any guys?" That was another thing about Stef, though she could swim in ponds, ride, work in the stables, farm, etc. she was also into fashion, pop culture, and most of all, boys. The rest of us couldn't figure out where she got it from.

"Yeah, that's covered, Stef." I told her with a smirk. Definitely no shortage of males.

"Single?" She asked excitedly.

"I don't know, and I'm not asking."

"Oh, you're know fun."

"No, I just don't care." I giggled a bit at our banter; I just knew she was sticking her tongue out at me.

"OK, well I gotta run, you gonna be ok with getting a ride home?"

"Yeah, I'm good, see you tomorrow."

"See ya, chica!" She shouted and ended the call with a click.

"Well?" Max asked from beside me, having finished taking care of Brimstone.

"We've got Chip and Spartacus for tomorrow, but she can't pick me up. Something about a fox getting into the hen house."

"Ah, well I would offer a ride, but Mae wants me home as soon as possible, and if I go all the way out where you live she'll have my head." He said with a regretful laugh. While normally a sweetheart, his wife could be a fearsome force when she wanted to be.

"We'll give you a ride home, won't we, Will?" Sarah broke in loudly, sending a pointed look to her husband that just screamed 'we are, now keep your mouth shut and be a good boy'. He of course, made no objections.

"Really, I insist. It'll give us some time to get to know each other and there's no point in making you wait when we can give you a lift."

There was no arguing with that woman, and I soon found myself being shepherded towards the same monstrous black truck I had been dumped in a few weeks ago.

"That thing belongs to you?" I asked in astonishment, for a moment not believing that the beast was owned by the major and his family, but then, actually it suited them, I could picture Sarah behind the wheel of that thing making all the cars around her get out of her way while driving down the freeway. The thought made me giggle.

"Yeah, hun, why?" Sarah asked as she opened the passenger door and hopped in first, allowing me to hold Annabelle, who was an absolutely adorable baby, for her while she got in.

"We had a bit of an impromptu meeting at camp."

Sarah raised her eyebrows so I continued.

"A couple of your soldier boys tied me up and threw me in the back of him." I explained. Now, I know most vehicles normally go by 'she', but there was just no way to call this thing a girl. It practically oozed masculinity.

Major Lennox, or Will as Sarah had ordered me to call him, was just climbing in as I told Sarah this.

"Your men tied up a teenage girl and tossed her in the back of the truck?" She asked her husband, who was nearly cowering under his wife's glower.

"They couldn't do much else with her." He tried to explain, avoiding Sarah's gaze as he stuck the key into the ignition.

"And why not?"

"They weren't sure if she was injured and didn't want to risk dragging her with them."

"And why would she be injured?"

His first response was rather quiet and she made him repeat it. Finally he said, "She fell out of a tree."

"What! So your men decided to _throw_ her into a truck! What were they thinking? You allow that kind of behavior? What is wrong with you! No common sense at all!" The tirade continued as Will drove out of Keeneland, amazingly able to drive steadily while hunching against his door and wincing at his wife's words.

To say I wasn't extremely amused would have been a lie.

The hour long drive to my farm was spent in friendly conversation after Sarah finally decided to stop harassing her husband. We talked about their family, my family, Annabelle, pets, pretty much anything except the reason they were here.

After talking to them for so long, it turned out Will Lennox wasn't such a bad guy after all. Sure, he had his rough, serious, no nonsense side, but really he was a caring, funny, friendly man who really loved his wife and baby daughter. It was adorably watching him with Annabelle.

Sarah was, of course, headstrong, stubborn, demanding, but also sweet and gentle. She obviously doted on her husband and baby.

By the time we reached the farm the sky was already getting dark. I hospitably invited them in for a glass of sweet tea as a bit of relief from the summer. Sarah spent about ten minutes telling me how gorgeous the house was. It was a large home, built in a sort of log cabin or ranch style. Inside was cozy and tastefully decorated, courtesy of my mother. Will, of course, appreciated my dad's rather impressive gun collection that was hanging on the walls.

Out of curiosity I asked them where they were staying, it was a pretty long drive into town and back roads could be dangerous in the dark so I didn't want them to risk staying too late.

When they told me there were cots in the cargo plane they had arrived in I balked, especially since Annabelle was with them, and immediately threatened to lock them in a room and not let them out till morning. Will laughed at that, asking how I intended to stop him from leaving when he was so much bigger than me.

I smiled sweetly, pointed at the nearest gun rack, and casually informed him that Daddy kept several of the guns loaded for emergencies. He stopped laughing after that.

Once I had gotten them settled into the guest room, after pulling my little brother's old crib out of the attic for Annabelle, I finally went back to my room and changed for bed, completely exhausted.

It was only after I shut out the lights that I wondered just what I was getting myself into.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: **Here's the next chapter, it's more of a filler really. She'll get to the base in the next chapter, which is part of the reason I went on and finished this one. I've been pondering on how her actual meeting with the Autobots is going to go, I didn't want the common screaming, fainting, etc, and I certainly didn't want the completely unrealistic, "Hi, nice to meet ya. Blah Blah Blah." But, I think I may have come up with something interesting, so I'll try to get that written tonight or tomorrow.

On another unrelated note, I might be changing the category. While I like the Bay films, I've rediscovered my love of G1, so I'll have a lot of the bots from that and some things may change. I'll still probably go along with ROTF, but it'll be a bit different, namely more bots and different designs on some, such as Sides being a red Lambo rather than a silver Stingray, but you'll just have to see :)

**Disclaimer:** Don't own the Transformers... wish I did

* * *

The day of the barbeque I woke before the sun rose, just as I did everyday in order to feed the horses, cattle, and other animals on the farm. I sleepily slammed my hand over my blaring alarm clock as the flashing numbers screamed 6:00 into my half open eyes. As much as I would have liked to snuggle further into my warm cocoon of blankets and pillows I swung my legs over the side of the bed, shivering when the chilled wooden boards of the floor came into contact with my warm feet. I like my room to be cold so that I can wrap up in blankets and be super comfortable, plus it keeps my siblings out of my room since they prefer the heat.

Stumbling over to my dresser I pulled out the pair of jeans that was sitting in the middle drawer. They were my favorite pair, well-worn, ragged, and permanently smelling of horse. Even Dad had mentioned it might be time to get a new pair, but it had taken too long to get them perfect, and I was rather attached. A thin, holey, crumpled t-shirt soon followed the jeans onto my body and I moved to my bathroom to fix up my appearance and get my morning chores over with.

I grimaced at my reflection as I brushed my teeth. I had forgotten to take out my braid the night before, and even though the band had come loose during the night, my hair was now in uneven, wavy kinks and sticking up at odd angles. I ended up having to clean my brush as well, pulling a wad of blonde hairs out of the bristles and tossing it to the trashcan. A mouse would probably find it and steal it to make a nest, but at least someone would get to use it.

I pulled my hair into a sloppy bun as I walked quietly down the hall, mindful of my guests. The light was on when I reached the kitchen, but then I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that the major was up.

He had helped himself to my mom's coffee machine and was drinking out of a mug while sitting at the counter and leisurely scanning a newspaper from a few days before.

I nodded to him as I walked to the refrigerator and poured myself a tall glass of pineapple juice. I snagged a few nectarines from the fruit bowl after setting my empty glass in the sink and headed for the door, noting absently that Will had set his mug and newspaper down as well and was following me.

We walked in silence down to the main barn. The lights came on slowly, the whickering of the horses and the mewing of the barn cats rising in volume as we headed towards the tack room. Will assisted me in feeding, handling the scooper and bales as someone practiced in it; I remembered that Sarah had mentioned them living on a small farm with a few horses as we drove home the day before.

Next we walked across the pasture behind the barn to the feed silo and grabbed a few sacks to fill the feed troughs in the cattle field.

It was not until we headed back to the house that he decided to speak.

* * *

Will had risen early, as was his habit in the military, and dressed quickly. He left the room quietly so as not to wake Sarah and Annabelle, who were both still sleeping soundly.

Finding his way to the kitchen had been easy, and he set about exploring the large room, finding coffee in one of the cupboards, a brand he liked fortunately, and gathering a mug for when the beverage was finished.

He had just picked up a two day old newspaper from the counter when the special cell phone in his pocket buzzed.

"Lennox." He stated, more out of habit than need; Ironhide would know it was him.

"So, the kid didn't murder ya in yer sleep, suppose that's a favorable sign." His friend's gruff voice sounded over the speakers.

Will laughed lightly. "She's actually really nice once you get her talking, very hospitable as well. Sarah likes her a lot, they've gotten along really well."

"Hmph. Guess the little femme ain't so bad. Her creator has an impressive collection of weapons for a human."

"Yeah, I wonder if he was ever in the military? He's got some pretty nice guns. Was there a reason you called on the phone instead of me just coming out?" Will asked, slightly confused as Ironhide preferred to speak to him face to face, or face to alt form whichever was the situation.

"Well, I don't think knowing her commanding officer was a loon who talks to his truck would do much help in convincing her to sign on." The Topkick said with a snicker.

"She's up?" Surprise was in his voice, it was just reaching six AM.

"Yeah, and heading this way. Ironhide out."

The connection ended and Will put the phone back into his pocket, retrieving his coffee and turning back to the paper just as a bleary-eyed teenage made her way into the kitchen.

The look on her face was only slightly startled to find someone else in the room, and she nodded briefly before attending to her own breakfast. When she left the room and walked out of the house he followed her, striding alongside her in silence, not sparing even a glance for his equally silent guardian. He helped her in the barn and with the cows, glad that he could at least partially make up for barging into her life all of a sudden.

It wasn't until they turned back that he decided to ask her while they weren't around anyone else.

"Have you thought about it anymore?"

She sighed and continued walking, not speaking for several yards. "Yeah."

"And?"

"The more I think about it, the more tempting it is, but I feel bad for considering throwing away something that I've been working towards for so long."

"If this didn't work out you could still go back to the Navy."

"I know, it just doesn't feel right."

"Well don't decide now, tell me tonight after you've met some of us and had a bit more time."

She smiled gratefully at him and they continued on to the house, reaching the kitchen just as Sarah did, a giggling Annabelle resting on her hip and a "Good morning!" to the both of them.

* * *

People began to show up around two in the afternoon. Max and his wife, Mae, were the first to arrive, bringing with them several bags worth of hotdogs, ribs, and smore materials. Jessica greeted them warmly, and Mae was introduced to the Lennoxs, Sarah immediately taking some of the bags from the elder woman. Next came Jessica's Aunt Emmy, Uncle Jack, their son Michael, and twin daughters, Samantha and Elizabeth. Following them were the Baker family, the Collins family, and finally Stephanie came up the road driving two big drafthorses with a wagon full of hay bales.

"Hey guys!" She exclaimed loudly, jumping from the wagon and handing the reigns off to Max before running over to Jessica, Sammy, and Liz, immediately embracing the twins as it had been awhile since they had seen one another. Her dark brown hair tangled briefly with Liz's strawberry blonde strands and it took the other two girls several minutes to untangle them.

Now all was left was to wait for the rest of Major Lennox's retinue to arrive, and when they did it was quite a show.

Many jaws dropped at the large array of flashy, new cars.

"You sure these guys ain't a private army, or the mafia or something?" Stef asked, staring at the vehicles.

The brunette's opinion changed immediately as the driver's got out of the cars.

"Who cares, I want one, or several. That's it, Jessie, you're going with them and hooking me up with some."

Major Lennox led the men to the other group of people.

"Jessica, and friends, these are the members of the team who decided to join us on this brief excursion. Jessica, you already know Ironhide and Chromia."

She nodded at them and smiled faintly.

"This is Bee," a youthful looking boy with vibrant yellow hair filled with darker spikes waved wildly, "the twins, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker," two guys around her age who were identical down to their glowing blue eyes, save for their hair, one's was brown the other's golden blonde, "Hound," a brown-haired man closer to Lennox's age with a bit of stubble on his lower face, a worn cowboy hat, complete with flannel shirt, jeans, and leather boots, "Mirage," another a bit older than her with almost platinum blonde hair that fell longer the others' and a faintly aristocratic look to his features, "and Bluestreak." a boy who looked around Bee's age with almost blue-black hair who was broken out of a rapid conversation with his friend and began waving at her excitedly.

Lennox continued on to the other soldiers who had decided to join the party, this time giving their real names rather than callsigns, which confused her a bit. The group with the callsigns all had glowing blue eyes, and Jessica wondered briefly if they were going to do that to her if she joined. She certainly hoped not, she liked her eyes just the way they were.

"Well, now that we all know who's who, what say we head out back and get started on this cook out?" Max suggested, much to the excitement of the families gathered, who immediately began picking up the large assortment of bags and box of food and equipment that had been accumulated during the arrivals and headed to the wagon, piling in and situating themselves, the newcomers following a bit hesitantly. They ended up having to drop some of the excess bales out of the wagon with the addition of so many people so that the horses wouldn't have trouble, but eventually all were settled comfortably, and Jessie and Stef climbed up front beside Max. The older man looked back to make sure all were seated, and with a whistle and snap of the reigns they headed off down the dirt road that wound its way around the farm.

* * *

I slumped slightly against the board that separated the front of the wagon from the back, quite ready to let loose and relax with my friends, old and new.

"So…" A voice to my right began, and I groaned, realizing that I was surrounded by my cousins and Stef.

"When were you going to tell us there were so many cute guys?"

"Seriously!"

"Trying to keep it to yourself?"

I face palmed.

"Guys, please, can you leave this till later?" I begged quietly. We were talking in whispers, but I got the feeling that some of the guests could hear us, especially when the golden haired one, Sunstreaker, started preening.

"You're not getting out of this until we're finished with you."

"And you better accept that offer so that we can come visit you, and you can bring some of your new friends home to visit."

I covered my face in my hands. There is nothing more frightening than a bunch of teenage girls. I couldn't imagine how guys would feel to be cornered like this.

* * *

We reached the camp site in good time. It sat along the creek, a circle of large logs surrounding a fire pit and a little meadow with a few trees and a rope swing into the water.

As soon as we arrived we jumped out of the wagon and began unloading the supplies, Lennox's men, and women if you counted Chromia, Sarah, and Annabelle, following a bit more hesitantly, lowering themselves out rather than leaping like the rest of us.

I stayed well away from the food stuffs, aiding Max in untacking Chip and Spartacus and hobbling them so they could graze. I, and the females of the adults, had learned long ago that it was best if I stayed as far from the cooking as possible. The only food substance I was allowed to go near the fire or grill with was a marshmallow, and that was only because I liked them charred to a crisp, therefore torching it on accident wouldn't be a problem. Cooking and I just don't go well together.

I was walking towards the creek after finishing with Chip, when I felt a tug on my shirt. Turning around, I found the kid, Bee looking at me with a slightly nervous look on his face. It was strangely adorable.

"Yeah?" I asked, wondering what he wanted.

He looked at me helplessly for a moment and began making quick movements with his hands. I was completely lost.

"Hewantsto knowifhe canpetthehorses." A fast-paced voice said from my other side. The other boy who looked younger than me, Bluestreak was standing there.

"What?"

"He wants to know if he can see the horses, Jess." A very familiar voice interpreted from behind me. I turned around and squealed, throwing myself into the arms of my older cousin.

Michael had moved across the country and I hadn't seen him for a while, and hadn't had the chance to greet him earlier.

"Hey there, little cousin." He chuckled embracing me. He released me a few seconds later. "So, you gonna show him the horses, or what?"

"Oh, sure, come on." I told him, his face lit up in a brilliant smile.

Michael, Bee, Bluestreak, and I walked to the horses, Michael and I catching up on things while Bluestreak chatting insistently to his mute friend.  
I showed the two kids how to hold their hands out, palms up, and let Chip sniff them. The big horse quickly lost interest and went back to pulling up graze, paying no mind to the two boys who were petting him with looks akin to amazement on their faces. It was if they had never been so near a horse before.

Michael soon convinced me to give Bee a little ride around the meadow, so he swung me up onto Chip back and lifted Bee up behind me. The poor kid immediately latched onto me with a death grip and shut his eyes tightly. It was just too cute.

I started off slow, giving him a chance to relax, and when he did I urged Chip into a slow canter. Bee was making an odd noise that sounded sort of like chirping and his eyes were dancing merrily when we finally got off.

The rope swing was discovered soon after, and we were all thoroughly soaked by the time Max shouted, "Time to eat!"

* * *

Will walked over to where Jessica sat pulling a completely charred marshmallow off her roasting stick.

She popped it into her mouth as he sat beside her, the crisp shell crunching as she chewed.

"Isn't that a bit much for a roasted marshmallow?" He asked.

She shook her head and swallowed before answering. "Anything I try to cook turns out like that, luckily I like my marshmallow's burnt to a crisp."

"To each his own." Will replied with a shrug, taking his own smoothly toasted marshmallow off his own stick and squishing it between graham crackers and chocolate, creating an oozing, sticky, mess of a smore.

"This is what happens every time I cook." He told her with a grin. "Sarah won't let me near the kitchen." His face turned serious. "Have you made your decision?"

She looked back into the fire, not saying anything for a long moment. "Yeah."

"Yeah, you've made your decision, or yeah you'll agree?"

"Both."

He looked at her in surprise.

"I like you guys, a lot more than I expected. I mean, I know I've only know you for a little while, but you seem like good people. And it really is a good deal."

He smiled at her. "I'm glad. Now we don't have to hunt you down and alter your memories for knowing about us."

She laughed with him.

"So when do we leave?"

"Tomorrow morning, 0700 hours. I can send Ironhide to pick you up."

"That soon?" She asked, a bit startled.

"Yeah, I know it doesn't give you much time, but we'll be supplying most of your belongings, and we're on a tight schedule. The SecDef will be at base in three days and you have to be there before him."

"The Secretary of Defense?" She asked, even more shocked. "Wow, this really is big."

"You have no idea." He muttered to himself.

* * *

I finally closed the door to my house as the last guests taillights disappeared down the driveway. What a night!

My friends and family had been surprised at the decision to join Lennox's team instead of going to the Academy, but I knew I had their support.

My cousins had left with huge hugs and promises after helping clean up. Lennox and his team had helped as well before returning to the airport, Sarah reminding me to be there bright and early.

Stef had walked home a little earlier, promising that she and her family, in addition to my aunt and uncle, would look after the farm until my parents returned, and explain the sudden change of plans. I already intended to leave them a letter, but I suppose both wouldn't hurt. Mom doesn't take too well to sudden surprises, and this was a doozy.

I went out and fed the animals again, my hound dog, Blue, finally wandered home from wherever he had been hunting and I let him into the house, glad of the company. I had a long night ahead of me.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note**: Well, here it is. It sounded a bit better in my head when I was imagining it, but it'll do for now. It may be awhile before my next update.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Transformers.

* * *

Ironhide arrived in Will's truck to pick me up at precisely six o'clock the next morning. I was sitting on my front porch waiting for him, a letter for my parents sitting inside as well as instructions for Stephanie. I hadn't slept at all the night before, having spent the entire time worrying about my decision and trying to decide what to bring. Will had said they would be supplying most of my things, but that would be only military items, so I had brought a small bag with a few changes of clothes, my favorite jeans, some pjs, and some odds and ends and important things.

I was barely able to walk straight as I headed to the truck and pulled open the door. I stumbled climbing in, as it was a bit of a reach for me, and the larger man ended up leaning over and yanking me in on his own.

I thanked him and leaned against the window as we drove away from my home, too geared up to sleep. This was it, we were on our way.

We reached the airport an hour later, Will, Sarah and the others were moving around outside a huge aircraft, the expensive cars I had seen were being loaded on. It seemed a bit of a waste to cart those things around, but who was I to say anything?

I was swaying on my feet when Sarah and Will came over, the major eyeing me critically.

"When did you get up?" He asked, observing my, I'm sure, rather sorry state.

"Six." I answered sluggishly.

"Today?" Ironhide asked from behind me.

"Nah, yesterday." I told them, continuing to shake my head until I began to nod off while standing there.

"You idiot!" Sarah suddenly barked, taking my bag away from me forcefully and dragging me into the plane.

"Bumblebee!" The older woman called, Bee showed up seconds later, I suppose that was his full callsign.

"Do you mind if she sleeps in you-r car?" She asked him, glancing at me but paying no more attention when she saw that I was in a state of slipping in and out of sleep.

He shook his head and let me lean against him, surprisingly strong for his size, but then, I was quite small myself so I suppose it wouldn't have been much of a problem.

Somehow I ended up curled up in the back of his bright yellow and black car, he had gone back outside and I was left alone to finally surrender to the pull of sleep.

* * *

I didn't wake until we reached the base, Bee was in the car and driving it off the plane. I sat up and looked around. Even with the darkened windows of the vehicle it was still obviously bright out, and I wondered where we were.

Bee drove in a line with the other vehicles into a large, empty hanger, and then stopped and got out. I followed him cautiously, grimacing as my back and legs ached a bit from being in the same position for so long.

Will came up to me and led me away, an urgent look on his face. He left me in a hallway just outside the hanger and told me to wait there, that Bates and I would be debriefed at the same time but there was a delay at the moment.

I was left to my thoughts, wondering who Bates might be, when a familiar voice echoed down the hall exclaiming my callsign from camp.

"Jinx!" I looked up to see Scarecrow running at me. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, but his brown hair had been clipped short in a military cut.

"Hey! What's up?" I asked excitedly, happy to see a familiar face.

"I don't know yet." He said with a laugh. "They've kept me confined in my room until you got here. Guess we'll find out together, eh?"

We stayed there talking for a while before a strange sound coming from the hanger next door suddenly distracted us.

"What was that?" Scarecrow asked looking confused.

I shrugged and followed him, both of us peering thru the clear section of the door to see if we could catch anything in our small range of vision. Unfortunately the hanger was pretty dark save for the area around the open door.

"You game?" He inquired suddenly, gesturing towards the door.

I grinned at him. "I am if you are."

He nodded, satisfied, and quietly pushed the door open, sliding into the room, me just behind him. The door clicked closed with a quiet snap and we blinked, adjusting our eyes to the change of light. At first we could see and hear nothing, but then a large shape started to become present towards the back of the room, make that several very large shapes.

"Hey, Scarecrow." I whispered, my mouth dry. "I think I'm hallucinating."

"Uh un." He said with a shaky voice. "We can't both be having the sane malfunction at the same time?"

"Which you want to try?" I asked as the shapes moved closer, revealing themselves to be giant robots.

"Want to try thirty-six?" He asked.

"No, too complicated. At camp our team had come up with a series of strategies for getting out of sticky situations and had numbered them at random. That way, even after our enemies figured out what we were doing they wouldn't be able to predict our next move.

"What about sixty-nine?" He asked again.

"Hey! I know that one!" A loud voice sounding suggestive and lewd suddenly came from one of the creatures.

Whatever color was left in my face abruptly disappeared.

"I'd suggest five."

"Agreed." He said without a moment's hesitation.

"What's five?" One of the other creatures asked, curiosity heavy in its voice.

"Close your eyes and we'll tell you." Scarecrow demanded, sounding a lot braver than I felt.

A set of blue lights, one of several, suddenly winked out. That must have been its eyes.

"All of you." He ordered again, and the voice spoke up in agreement, obviously wanting to know what we were talking about.

It was a strangely familiar voice, and I was sure I had heard it before, but I couldn't place it.

One by one the other blue lights went out, until we were left in almost complete darkness. Scarecrow and I began moving silently towards the open doors at the front.

"OK, this is five." He began slowly, trying to buy us more time. "RUN!" He shouted, grasping my hand in his as we bolted out of the hanger and towards the nearest building we could find, ducking into the small doorway and hoping that whatever those things had been weren't desperate enough to wreck the building to find us.

We eventually came upon another door at the end of the building, this one with an old fashioned padlock, which was a bit surprising since the rest of the base appeared to be fairly high tech. I slumped by the door, trying to catch my breath and calm my racing heart, wondering what the hell was going on. Scarecrow, however was peering intently at the lock, as though willing it to open.

"Hey, you got a hair pin on you?" He asked suddenly.

I frowned and felt through my pockets, not sure if I had any spares or old ones. I found one in my front pocket, curved and tangled but otherwise intact.

"Here." Both of our fingers were trembling when he took it from me.

"Keep a look out, will you?" He muttered as he bent the pin and stuck it into the lock opening, jiggling it around.

I kept watch down the empty hallway, occasionally hearing footsteps and voices which made me tense and jump in anticipation, but by the time Scarecrow had finally managed to pick the lock we had not been discovered.

We stumbled into the room, hastily shutting the door behind us and trying to calm down after everything that had been going on.

"Oh my God." I whispered, starting to hyperventilate. "Did you see those things! We're so going to die! What about Will and Epps and Sarah, and Oh Lord! Annabelle, those things could crush her! We're going to die!"

"Are you having a panic attack?" Scarecrow asked, his voice just as shaky and his skin as pale as mine.

I shrugged, a bit unsure.

"Well don't, we can't both be having one!"

He slid down the back of the door, still shaking.

It was not until we looked around the room that things began to go our way. We were in a supply room, filled to the brim with guns, ammunition, and equipment.

"Yes!" Scarecrow breathed, recovering slightly from his panic as he stood and walked towards a carton of pistols, pulling one out and checking its mechanisms. "Now we have a chance."

I headed for the wall, plucking an M14 rifle from its spot. It was in good condition, probably just used for ceremony and practice. We both loaded the proper cartridges and slipped on the safeties.

"Here." Scarecrow said suddenly, handing me a pistol.

I looked at it blankly before gazing back up, slightly embarrassed.

"I can't shoot a pistol."

There was a long minute of silence.

"You're joking."

I shook my head.

"Well that's just fantastic. I sure hope you can use that rifle.

I nodded and clutched it tighter.

Suddenly footsteps began echoing in the hallway outside, coming closer. Scarecrow and I froze and stared at each other, our frazzled minds not knowing what to do.

"Hide!" I whispered, searching around the suddenly small room for a suitable location.

Scarecrow grabbed me again and pulled as both under a large, folded up tarp. We wiggled back as far as we could, making sure we were both fully hidden, and then froze not a moment too soon.

"Major!" An unidentified voice suddenly exclaimed from the other side of the door. "The lock's open!"

"Shit!" Came a very familiar voice, and several people entered the room, a pair of combat boots planted themselves directly in front of our faces.

"Langley, please don't tell me there are two frightened kids with guns running around the base somewhere." Will's voice came from above us.

"Sir, there's two Berettas and an M14 missing, as well as a few boxes of ammunition."

"Damn it!" Will cursed. "All right, keep every one on high alert. Let's move out!"

The men stampeded from the room, back in the direction they had come from.

Scarecrow and I waited several minutes before crawling out of our hiding place and standing up.

"Do you think they know about the robots?" I asked quietly, not sure if one of the men was still nearby.

"Doesn't look like it, they wouldn't have searching for us as a priority if they did."

"We need to get out of here."

He agreed, but decided returning out to the hallway was too risky.

"There! The window." We walked over to it.

A small window with a shelf underneath was on the back wall. We cleared the materials off the shelf and I gave him a boost up. Scarecrow crouched on the shelf, making sure it would hold his weight before quietly opening the window. He peeked his head out and looked around quickly before motioning for me to hand him my rifle. He placed it on the shelf beside him and reached down to pull me up. The shelf creaked dangerously under our combined weight, but held.

Scarecrow looked out once more, and seeing that the coast was clear, gestured for me to go first. I crouched at the window's opening and quickly jumped out, remaining in a crouched position until I was sure there was no one around. I stood up and reclaimed the rifle Scarecrow was holding through the window. He followed soon after and we crept along the edge of the building, sticking to the shadows. Wherever we were it was still under construction, only a few buildings finished while the rest were in varying states of being built. From the sound of the ocean, I supposed we were on the coast, or maybe on an island, which would make our situation all the worse.

"I'll go first." Scarecrow said, nodding towards our destination, a partially completed building that could provide us with more cover.

He ducked out from behind the building we had just climbed out of and began running towards the other. He was nearly there when something happened that neither of us had counted on. A huge, gleaming, golden robot leaped down from the same building I was cowering behind and scooped him up in one of its massive hands, causing Scarecrow to drop his pistol and cry out in surprise.

My heart stopped as the robot grasped Scarecrow in his hand, my former team leader was struggling to release himself from the giant's grip.

I darted out from my cover before I had time to consider the stupidity of my actions.

"Let him go!" I shouted, standing right before the golden robot, my rifle aimed at his face.

The robot stopped and stared down at me before starting to chuckle.

"And what will you do if I don't, little femme?"

I growled at him, not understanding what he meant by femme, and not really caring.

"If you don't put him down now, you overgrown piece of scrap metal, I'm glowing to blow your eyes right out of your head." I didn't know if the bullets loaded into the rifle could actually do much damage to the thing, but I wasn't exactly thinking properly.

All humor dropped from the robots face.

"What did you call me, little slagger?" He snarled, squeezing Scarecrow tighter.

I panicked more at my friend's expression of discomfort. Carefully sighting my target through the rifle's scope I gave one last warning. I was dimly aware of other people beginning to surround us, but I was too focused on the task at hand to pay much mind to my surroundings.

"You have five seconds to put him down." I warned the robot. "Five, four," He made no move and I flipped the safety off. "Three, Two," He was grinning down at me as if daring me to do it. "One."

I squeezed the trigger.

* * *

There was shocked silence as the shot's echo faded away, the gathered humans and mechs staring at the three in the center of the makeshift ring in amazement and trepidation.

Sunstreaker was staring at the teenage girl through his remaining optic. And then he began howling, more out of horror than pain. He dropped the boy in his hand, and Sideswipe hurriedly caught the stunned teenager before he could hit the ground.

"Ironhide! Look what the little fragger did to me!" The golden mech shrieked, pointing to his destroyed optic. If he was expecting sympathy, or for the older mech to blast the girl to smithereens for attacking him, he received neither, for the black mech looked at him for a moment and then began laughing uproariously, hardly able to remain standing.

"Ratchet!" Sunstreaker turned to the medic, but got no help from him either; he was grinning and chuckling.

Sunstreaker, seeing that he was getting no support sped away to nurse his wounded pride, leaving an assortment of amused and amazed humans and Autobots behind him.

"Hahaha!" Ironhide's booming laughter shook the ground, causing Jessie to sit down when her legs could no longer support her. "That's the best reaction yet! The little femme's got my approval!"

Ratchet was still chuckling as he retrieved the boy from Sideswipe's hands, the red mech immediately sped off to find his twin. The girl was still sitting on the ground, and he received little resistance as he picked her up as well.

"I'm taking them to see Optimus." The medic informed Major Lennox, who looked as though he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Ratchet lumbered away, his shocked cargo not able to process what was going on. He found his leader in Prowl's temporary office, the two looking up as he entered the room, their optics zeroing in on the two teenagers held gently in his hands.

"Ratchet." Optimus Prime greeted him. "I was under the impression we would not be interacting with the children until Major Lennox had explained everything to them.

"I know, Optimus, but there was a bit of a situation."

"A situation?" The black and white mech behind Optimus was regarding them with a disgruntled expression.

"They caught sight of some of the 'bots in the hanger and panicked, which led to them finding one of the storage rooms. Sunshine caught hold of this one," he nodded to the boy. "while they were relocating, and the little femme shot one of his optics out."

There was a pause before: "Shot one of his optics out?"

"Yeah," the medic said, starting to grin again. "You should've seen it, best thing I've witnessed in cycles."

Prowl raised one of his hands to his face and shook his head. "Wonderful." He muttered.

"Sir?" A voice came from the open door. The three mechs looked around to see Major Lennox looking in.

"Do you mind if I take Bates and Lindon and brief them, I'm sure they're feeling a bit out of sorts."

"Not at all." Optimus told him, nodding to Ratchet to set them down.

The medic carefully put them on the floor and Lennox led both of them out of the room towards the human quarters.

* * *

I sat in silence beside Scarecrow, or Andrew. That was his real name, after all.

Will had been explaining the situation to us, starting more than a year ago, a little before the terrorist attack on Mission City. Turns out they weren't terrorists, at least not the human kind. There were more 'bots' like the ones we had encountered, except they weren't Autobots like the ones here. They were another faction, the Decpeticons, and they were what we were going to be fighting against.

We were on a base on an island called Diego Garcia off the coast of California. This base was under construction, the main one was on the mainland, in the desert in Nevada. Apparently new recruits were brought here in case of reactions like ours.

Secretary Keller would be arriving in two days to meet with us, and we would be given a few weeks to accumulate and get used to the bots before our jobs began.

Will smiled when he was finished and officially welcomed us to the team. It wasn't until we stood to go to our rooms that I remembered something. I had blown one of the robots' eye out. I was so dead.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: **Well, it wasn't quite as long a wait as I thought. I wanted one more chapter before we moved on to the main base, and I was suddenly hit by a funny image, hopefully I was able to translate into words adequately enough.I know what is going to happen several chapters from now, but untill then I'm pretty open-ended, so if any one has ideas or suggestions I'm open to them.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Transformers

* * *

It had been three days already since I had arrived at the NEST base on Diego Garcia, well just barely three as it was early in the morning on the third day. Early meaning way too early to consider it as a new day. Scarecrow, or Andy as I was now calling him, and I had met with the Secretary of Defense yesterday, both of us rather embarrassed to be meeting him in informal clothing. Secretary Keller was a surprisingly nice gentleman, waving off our apologies and extending his own towards our rather unorthodox meeting with the Autobots, though if the look in his eyes meant anything he found the whole ordeal rather funny. Andy and I didn't feel quite the same, seeing as we had been terrified out of our minds and had been running on adrenaline alone; we had both been avoiding Sunstreaker like the plague since that unfortunate incident. Another surprise had been in learning that the people with the bright blue eyes who we had met at camp and that had been at the barbeque on my farm were actually holoforms of some of the autobots. The whole operation was much bigger than we had expected. This was only an outpost base, created to guard something of importance; that information hadn't been given to us. Aside from the Autobots, of which there were more at the main base in Nevada, and the soldiers, there were several civilians involved including a computer genius named Maggie Madsen, and an associate of hers, a hacker named Glen. There was also a family, the Witwickys, the son, Sam, had saved the world or something like that and Bumblebee was his guardian and stayed at the family's house most of the time. Sam's girlfriend, a girl named Mikaela, was also in on the secret, and both apparently frequented the main base, tagging along with Bumblebee no doubt. Speaking of Bee, he was as adorable in robot mode as he was when he looked like a human. He was yellow and black with door-wings sticking out behind him and cute little antennae sticking out from his head. He couldn't speak either, apparently their holoforms were made pretty accurately, but he used the radio to communicate which, while a bit confusing was pretty neat. He had been told to help us get used to the idea of them by the leader, Optimus Prime. Now _he_ was something. The guy, robot, mech, whatever they were called, pretty much oozed authority. It was a bit difficult to be afraid of him though, he was, he was something else.

Now, you're probably wondering what I'm doing up so late, or I suppose I should say early. Well, Bumblebee and his friend Bluestreak, who talks even faster in robot mode, dragged me and Andy to the make-shift recreation room to hang out with them. I hadn't officially met many of the bots yet, and I wasn't sure I wanted to meet all of them so soon, though I certainly enjoyed my time with Bee and Blue, even if the latter talked too fast to understand. Bee had given us a lift onto what looked like an over-sized table; I still wasn't used to being picked up and carried around, and by the look on Andy's face he certainly wasn't either. There weren't many of the others around, but Sideswipe was there and he came over when he saw us sitting on the table. When I first met Sides I had been scared that he would torch me or squish me or something for blowing his brother's optic out, but instead he had grinned at me and complimented me on my shooting skills. I later found out from Bluestreak that he had made a bet with Hound on whether or not I would shoot, and be able to hit, Sunstreaker. Needless to say I had won him a good supply of high-grade energon, the stuff they drink to refuel.

Apparently the twins were renowned for their trouble making ability, and the bots regaled the two of us with stories of their misadventures, namely with Ratchet, who Sides referred to as 'the Hatchet', Blue and Bee breaking into Sideswipe's stories with comments of their own every now and then. We also spent a lot of time talking about ourselves, where we grew up and such. I got pummeled with a lot of questions; it seems the bots aren't around a lot of girls. They only know Maggie, Mikaela, Sarah, Sam's mother, and a few women in the military who are primarily on the medical staff, and even they don't have much contact.

It was a great surprise to us all when Bee made note of the time, wondering if they had been keeping us up too late as it was past three in the morning.

Andy and I were lifted off the table and bid good night as we stumbled out of the room. We parted at my hallway, and I made my way disorientedly towards my room, my tiredness finally catching up with me. I hadn't had much sleep the past few days, if you'll exclude my very nice nap while inside Bumblebee on the way over, and I was really feeling the strain.

I reached my room and shut the door behind me, not bothering with the light switch. Now, as I'm sure I already told you, I like to be chilled and curl up in my blankets. Well, that island base was hot, especially when the buildings didn't have air conditioning. In order to get comfortable I ended up having to lie on the concrete floor under the bed where it was nice and cool. I grabbed my blanket and pillow and was soon out like a light. Something you probably don't know about me is that when I've been missing sleep for awhile I need one really good crash to get me kick started again, and when that happens I don't wake up for anything until my body has decided it's ready to get up. That can be a very bad thing.

* * *

It was fairly late in the morning, near afternoon, really, and Bumblebee and Bluestreak were walking down the hall towards Jessie's room. They had learned that Sam, his parents, and Mikaela would be coming over for a brief visit and to take Bumblebee back to Tranquility, and they wanted to be sure Jessie was up to meet them. They had thought it odd that she wasn't already up, and had decided to go see what was taking her so long. Her door was still closed when they reached the small room, and the two bots activated their holoforms so that they wouldn't risk breaking the wooden board.

"Ms. Lindon? Jessie?" Bluestreak called, glancing at his mute friend in confusion when there was no answer.

He turned the knob and pushed the door open, slightly surprised to find that it opened without resistance. The two entered the room cautiously, noting immediately that the person they sought wasn't in sight.

"Butshe'sgot tobeinhere!" Bluestreak exclaimed. "We'vebeenevery whereelse!"

Bumblebee caught sight of something and bent down to get a closer look, Bluestreak followed him.

What looked suspiciously like a leg was sticking partially out from under the bed. Bluestreak took on a horrified expression as he recalled everything he had ever read about earth mammals preferring to crawl to a small space to die.

"Ohprimus! DoyouthinkSunstreaker wasmadenough toactually deactivateher! She'sdeadisn'tshe!" He wailed when they looked further to see her lying sprawled out under the bed.

Bumblebee made a sad sort of whimpering sound and carefully tugged on the exposed leg, pulling her motionless body out from under the bed.

"Hemusthave,look she'sintheclothes shewasinyesterday! Ithoughthumans changedtheirgarments whentheywenttorecharge!"

"_Is it..check his vitals! Snap to it!"_ Clips from various movies and sound bytes suddenly sounded from Bee and Bluestreak hurriedly complied to see if she was still functioning. He lay his head on the middle of her chest, listening for any sign of her spark.

"Ican'tfeelherspark, pumpthing, orwhateveritis! Sheisdead!" He wailed when he came up again.

Bumblebee's holoform disappeared and the mech reached his hand in and scooped Jessie up, cradling her carefully in his palms. Bluestreak did the same, and the bots stood there wondering what to do.

"_If we stay…trouble…take the blame... sinners pay the price!" _came stumbling through Bee's radio.

"You'reright, butwhatdowedo?" Bluestreak asked him, staring mournfully down at the girl.

Bumblebee shrugged and whined.

"Well, whatdohumansdo whenoneofthemdies? Theyburythemright?"

Bumblebee nodded.

"Iguessweshould dothatthen." Bluestreak said quickly, but quietly, and led the way down the hall towards the back of the partially built base.

They encountered no other mechs or humans as they made their way to an area that still had a few trees left standing.

Bluestreak set about scooping up large handfuls of the soft dirt and once he had cleared a good sized pit Bumblebee gently set Jessie down inside of it.

"Shouldwe, youknow, saysomething?" Bluestreak asked, but Bumblebee merely shrugged.

They ended up saying nothing, though Bee whimpered quite a bit, and they carefully pushed the dirt back in a little at a time until she was covered and the hole filled.

It never occurred to them to take her to a medic.

* * *

The Witwickys and Mikaela arrived almost right after Bumblebee and Bluestreak returned from their morbid business. There were many happy greeting among both the bots and humans at the arrival of the five. Will quickly ushered them to the rec room to introduce them to the newsy recruits, hoping that Sam and Mikaela would find some new friends since they were so close in age.

"Hey, Bates! Get down here! There's some people I want you to meet!" The major hollered up to Andrew who was in the middle of discussing some of his old hiking trips with Hound. The green Autobot gave him a lift to the floor and he eagerly greeted the newcomers.

"Hey, I'm Sam." The boy, who was about the same height as him, said whilst extending his hand.

"And I'm Mikaela." The girl beside him said with a smile.

"I'm Andrew, but you can call me Andy." The older teen said with a grin. "It's nice to finally be able to put a face to the both of you."

"Hey Bates, seen Lindon anywhere?" Will asked, glancing around the rec room and not spotting her blonde hair anywhere.

"No, come to think of it I haven't seen her anywhere. What about you, Prowl?" He asked the tactician who had just entered the room from where he had been on monitor duty.

"Negative, I do not believe Ms. Lindon has left her quarters today." The black and white mech stated.

Will looked confused. "That's not like her, and she said she wanted to meet you." He mused. "I guess we'll have to go see what's keeping her."

The group turned to leave the room, but were interrupted by Bumblebee starting to sob uncontrollably.

"What's up, Bee?" Sam asked in concern.

Bluestreak began to look uncomfortable. "Well, yousee, wewenttocheckon Jessieearlierbut whenwegotto herroomshewasunder thebedandhersparkwasn't workingsowehadto buryhersincethat'swhat youhumansdo,right?" The blue and white mech said in a rush.

There was silence for several long moments before Will looked at the two youngest bots in shock. "You did WHAT?"

* * *

I was slightly disoriented when I woke up. It was completely dark, and there seemed to be a weight pressing down on me, but then I remembered that I had crawled under the bed to sleep. I tried to scoot over to get out from under the bed, but was even more confused to find that I couldn't move, at all. That was about when I noticed that I wasn't lying on concrete, but on dirt. In fact, there was dirt above me, and everywhere. I couldn't move hardly at all, and I began to panic. Normally I don't mind small spaces, but when you've just realized you've been buried alive, such thoughts don't really come to the front of your mind.

I started breathing faster, wondering how long I had been down here and how much oxygen I had left, it was already beginning to feel slightly stale. When I opened my mouth to shout dirt fell into it from above me and I started to cough, using up even more of whatever was left.

"Help me! Somebody! I'm trapped!" I started screaming.

The more I screamed and cried the more light headed I felt and the harder it became to think.

I was still sobbing when I finally began to drift into unconsciousness, the dirt above me beginning to collapse.

* * *

By the time all of the humans had processed what exactly Bluestreak had said most of the bots were already out of the building, trying pinpoint where the two naïve mechs had buried the femme.

It was Hound, of course, who was able to find the location quickest, and he immediately set about digging her up while the others followed him.

The mech's large hands made it easy for him to scoop out the dirt, but he had to be careful so that he wouldn't further damage her. She wasn't moving when he located her body, and his face fell at the thought that they were too late, that not even five days into the assignment she was already dead, killed by two of their own.

Ratchet, however, was there beside him and he gently took Jessie's body and scanned it, sighing in relief when he found her to be still functioning, albeit a little oxygen deprived and her blood levels too high from panic and breathing difficulty.

"Is she all right?" Will asked, breathing heavily from his sprint.

"I believe so." The medic replied, and several mechs vented in relief.

* * *

"Wait, so they did what?" I asked, not sure I was hearing him properly.

Ratchet grumbled and repeated himself for the fifth time. "They thought you were dead and decided to bury you, and if we hadn't found out when we did you would have suffocated."

"Wow." Was all I could say. "This really is a dangerous job."


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note**: A little behind on the update, but I finished a later chapter before this one so that'll make up for it :)

Thanks to Ryle Culler for the awesome reviews! And yes, that would have been bad! Actually, that would make a pretty good challenge fic for any of you readers who enjoy such things:

Challenge- What if Bluestreak had gone with another human custom of burning the dead rather than burying them? If anyone is interested write up a one-shot and send it to me and I'll add the best one/s as a bonus chapter under your name.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own transformers

* * *

I will apologize in advance for any grumpiness or abruptness displayed during this time. I do have an excuse of course. You see, once all the hysteria over Bee and Blue burying me while I was asleep had calmed down, the whole situation was found to be rather humorous. By everyone except the three of us involved. I myself couldn't stay mad at the two mechs, they hadn't been on earth long and it had been an innocent blunder after all; besides, no one could stay long at them for an extended period of time, well maybe Bluestreak, but not Bumblebee. Ratchet had immediately given the two of them a long lecture on human physiology, particularly emphasizing the location of the heart and listening for breathing. I, on the other hand, was being punished in an entirely different way, and it wasn't even my fault. Every time I was able to drift off into a nice sleep someone would either honk a horn, the autobots, or blast an airhorn in my ear, the soldiers, Will, Rob and Andy to be specific. Then the culprit would make sure I was awake, laugh and make some comment about not wanting me to be buried on accident and run off. I had long since given up on chasing them, and getting a good rest. Consquently I was more or less getting a very bad attitude from my lack of sleep and had started snapping at everyone, including Optimus Prime, who at least had the tact to ignore the snippiness of my voice and let me rest in peace, occasionally even going so far as to allow me to nap for a short time in his office. Of course, the times were very brief as one of my tormentors always seemed to know when I was there and was waiting to drag me out as soon as I fell asleep. I think Prowl was in on it, probably getting revenge for me mentioning he might start collecting dust if he stayed at the monitors for much longer, either that or the others were starting to get unbelievably good at knowing where I was at any given time.

On another note, the Witwickys and Mikaela would be staying with us until we moved out to the main base, and a few days after that they and Bee would be heading to their homes. Sam and Mikaela were pretty neat, though Sam was on my black list for siding with Will and Rob on the sleeping fiasco. Mikaela at least was one my side. At first I wasn't sure I was going to like her, she had that jock whore look going for her, though in truth she was just blessed with amazing genes from her dead mother and was in actuality a pretty down to earth chick with a wicked knack for mechanics. How a dork like Sam ended up with her I will never know; it must have had something to do with Bee.

We would be leaving for the base within the day or so, and meeting more Autobots while we were at it. So far I had met quite a few.

There was of course, Optimus Prime, the leader, whose alt form was a custom Peterbilt semi. He was noble, and kind, and patient, and everything a respected leader is supposed to be. It's actually a bit difficult to describe the mech. He's one of those guys you just have to meet in person.

Ratchet is the chief medic, his vehicle was the yellow hummer ambulance I had seen at camp, and he had several apprentices, one of which, Jolt, a blue Chevrolet Volt. While Ratchet, or Hatchet as Sides so loving called him, is no doubt a suberb medic, he has the worst bedside manner a doctor could ask for. If you weren't seriously injured and were bothering him in some fashion he saw it perfectly acceptable to lob an item at your head, preferably a wrench, of course humans were subject to oversized rolls of bandages that could easily knock you over or knock you out completely, which would only add to his grumpiness. Jolt, on the other hand is far more laid back and highly unpredictable, just as likely to play a prank or head recklessly into a fight as he was to calmly set injuries or save a life. There is another apprentice medic named First Aid, but he stayed back at the main base so I hadn't met him yet.

Prowl is the chief tactician, and second in command to Optimus. He changes into a Police car, and is a strict enforcer of the rules. He is also brilliant in strategy and has more patience than any mech or human I had encountered so far, except maybe Optimus. He isn't entirely fond of the twins, or the younger bots, nor are they of him, but he has a lighter side that he doesn't show often; I did mention his suspected involvement in certain evil-doers harassing me didn't I?

Next I suppose, should be the Lambo twins. Sideswipe is obviously my favorite. He always has a few plans hidden up his servos and is willing to implement one whenever he finds a partner, of course, he has been getting on my nerves lately with his partaking in keeping me awake, but I suppose I'll forgive him as soon as he lets me in on one of his schemes, preferably against one of the other culprits. The golden twin of the duo I haven't gotten to know very well, primarily because I am still avoiding him for fear that he would squish me 'on accident'. Ratchet had already explained that the busted optic was a simple repair and only took a few nano kliks to finish, but Sunstreaker's narcissistic personality makes me plenty frightened of going near him. I swear, every time I see him the stuck up mech is polishing his armor or talking about how superior he is. Even if I wasn't scared to death of him I wouldn't want to be around him listening to him talk about himself anyway.

If ever there was a mech to rival Sunstreaker's ego it would be Tracks. The blue stingray is every bit as full of him self and aware of his 'perfection' as the gold lambo. He does however, have a rather impressive payload, and he can fly, which gives him a tiny bit of a bump up in my book. Of course, that may just be because he doesn't have a grudge against me.

Bluestreak, of course, I have spent a lot of time with. His alt mode is a Datsun, and aside from his shoulder cannons and coloring he looked a lot like Prowl, though I was assured they weren't related by both mechs. As I'm sure I've mentioned he talks, a lot. In fact, it's very rare that you can get him to shut up. He also doesn't take offense when someone get snippy with him and yells; he just keeps on jabbering. Bumblebee, on the other hand, rarely talks, and when he does it's thru the radio, which is a nice relief from Blue.

Ironhide is the weapons specialist and is always more than willing to bring out his large cannons to show off. Sideswipe likes to make comments about him compensating for something since they were so large, often starting a tussle between the two, which is more often than not settled by Chromia. Even for a femme her size she could keep up with her mate's temper and explosives. That's what they were called. Bondmates or sparkmates are the equivalent of husband and wife, though the connection was even stronger. Apparently they were somewhat in each other's minds, could hear their thoughts and feel their emotions. It seemed like an interesting idea, though a bit of an invasion of privacy.

Hound is probably one of my favorites. He's a scout who transforms into a jeep, and will drive thru absolutely anything. He can also make these really life-like holograms into anything; it's the same technology their holoforms are based on, just not as advanced or real. Hound likes to talk to the humans, and he's probably the most at home with us. He sometimes let me go out on short drives with him, giving me the opportunity to sleep a bit before one of the others finds out where I've gone and wakes me up.

And then there's Mirage. His alt mode is a blue and white Ford GT. According to Sides he had grown up in a place called the Towers, sort of the elite cybertronian aristocracy. He had been wealthy and spent his life in leisure before the war began, and though he had sided with the Autobots there were several who didn't trust him for various reasons, one of which being that he didn't appear to care too much about the war and was more concerned with returning to his former lifestyle. He does, however, have a unique gift that made him invaluable to the Autobots and perfect for the position of spy. He can turn invisible. It's actually really neat and handy, not that I'd admit that to his face. I tried convincing him to let me sleep inside him for a bit while he was invisible; he refused and left me to the mercy of Will and Rob. We've been rubbing each other the wrong way since we met, and I see no reason for that to change. He ignores my existence, and I ignore his, which was easy to do since half the time I couldn't see him whether he was there or not.

* * *

Jessie yawned as she made her way down the long hallway. They would be leaving soon for the main base, their ride, an enormous Autobot named Skyfire, had arrived earlier that morning and everyone else was busy packing their things and some equipment. Of course they had still found the time to prevent her from getting more than a few hours sleep.

She and Andy hadn't been given anything to do, seeing as they had few items of their own until they reached the base, and they were exempt from duty for a couple of days.

"-ess! Jessie! Jessica!"

She looked up at hearing her name being shouted. A rather exasperated looking major was standing in front of her; it appeared as though he had been hollering at her for some time.

Major Lennox took note of her slow reaction and the way she swayed on her feet, feeling a twinge of guilt for keeping her from sleeping. It had been a tad immature, though Epps had started it. Besides, it would give her some experience.

When she continued to stare at him owlishly he decided to take matters into his own hands, bending over and catching her around the waist to throw her over his shoulder.

"Will!" She exclaimed, struggling weakly to release herself from his strong grip as he marched down the hallway, his shoulder digging into her stomach.

Will carried her all the way into Skyfire's belly, plopping her down on a tarp-covered crate of equipment.

"We leave in a bit, you might as well get some rest, you look as though you could drop dead on your feet." He told her, grinning when she swatted at him half-heartedly.

Jessie snuggled into the not to comfortable tarp, dozing off as his clanging footsteps faded away.

* * *

I missed the entire ride to the main base, and somehow ended up sleeping inside Optimus' alt mode mid trip, therefore I was slightly disoriented, though very rested, when I woke up.

I returned to the waking world as we drove up to the base. Boy, I'll tell you, I had thought the base at Diego Garcia was huge. This place was enormous! There were several large hanger-type buildings, and even a runway for Skyfire, though apparently he tended to land out in the desert. Optimus informed me that the base extended further underground, the hallways and rooms, aside from in the human barracks, were tall and wide enough for even the giant leader to walk around. Poor Skyfire could only walk around in his hanger, since his size was so massive, but according to the others he preferred to be left on his own, unless he was collaborating with Wheeljack on something.

The metal gates swung open as the convoy approached, a red and white mech who I was informed was named Red Alert, was standing behind them watching us. We stopped just inside the gates, most of the soldiers jumping out of the humvees and Autobots and heading off to their quarters. Optimus stopped Andy and I to introduce us to the security director. Red Alert was a bit, paranoid. His optics were narrowed as he scanned the both of us, finally greeting us with a stiff hello before turning to inspect some of the cargo that Skyfire was carrying in.

"Don't mind him." Sides said, coming up behind us. "Red's always like that, his CPU's a bit screwy, thinks everything's going to attack him."

"I heard that, Sideswipe." Red Alert called as the red lambo led us towards the buildings.

"Sideswipe, you're on patrol duty, I'll show Ms. Lindon and Mr. Bates around the facilities." Prowl cut in just as we reached the nearest entrance. Sides shrugged and transformed into his alt mode before roaring off in a cloud of dust.

"Now, if you will follow me." The tactician ordered, entering the building.

Prowl showed us a lot of the buildings, both human and Autobot. There was a gigantic rec room with the biggest tv set I have ever seen along the far wall. It was used by both humans and mechs, counters and chairs available for both sizes, an energon dispenser for them and a small kitchen area with snack food and sodas set in one of the corners for us. There were beanbag chairs, game systems and games, loud speakers, and a huge collection of cds. It certainly looked like fun.

The med-lab was also for Autobots and humans, Ratchet, Jolt, and the other apprentice named First Aid, another red and white mech who was soft spoken and completely devoted to being a medic. There were human and Autobot sized examination tables, and medical tools for each. Ratchet and his helpers were equally skilled, thanks to the internet.

Each of the mechs and femmes, excluding bonded pairs, of which there was only one currently, had their own room with a berth and whatever tools, weapons, decorations, or items the bot decided to have in it. The human men, excluding the highest ranked officers, were thrown together in a few large barrack-style rooms with the traditional bunks and chests for belongings. Will had a room with a large bed and a crib for when his family came to stay, and Rob had his own room as well. As a female, I was bit better off. Since there was a small number of full time female staff, there hadn't been need to construct a barracks for them. Each woman had her own room, they were more like large storage closets, but at least there was some semblance of privacy. As far as bathrooms went, there was one large shower room for every resident. The bots had several showerheads with cleansing solution inside; they didn't care much about privacy since they kept their armor on at all times, but for us it was a little different. The men and women rotated schedules for the showers, and it was always a good idea to shout into the room just in case so that you didn't get an unpleasant surprise upon walking in.

There was a larger, separate kitchen for the humans, the fridge, freezer, and pantry partially stocked with breakfast, lunch, dinner and other foods. The security and surveillance rooms were in the lower levels, full of high tech earth and cybertronian equipment. There were also offices and meeting room and a gym, once again for both species, though the cybertronian part was surrounded by reinforced metal and training drones while we had regular gym equipment. There was even a lap pool under the gym, it had a reinforced glass roof, which was a little weird, but the fact that it was there was amazing. Turns out having Autobots as allies really helped with the money, plus they were more than willing to help with the construction.

Last we were shown the labs, merely so that we wouldn't get curious and end up there on accident. The science labs were Wheeljack's domain; he's an awkwardly adorable white and grey mech with fins on either side of his helm that lit up when he talked and turned colors depending on his mood. Prowl warned us several times to never go near the labs; apparently Wheeljack's creations had a penchant for blowing up, the scientist fins flashing pink in embarrassment at his words.

Our brief tour ended at Optimus' office; it was time to receive our assignments. I waited out in the hall as Prowl showed Andy inside. The discussion took a long time and I was reduced to counting floor tiles as the minutes dragged on. Finally the door slid open and Andy walked out, a fairly pleased look on his face when he passed me. He gave a thumbs up and nodded towards the door before heading off down the hallway towards the barracks. I breathed in deeply and collected myself before walking into the large room.

* * *

"You're joking." Was all Jessie could say to the mechs in front of her.

Optimus Prime, Prowl, and Ratchet were all staring at her with surprised looks in their optics.

"Ms. Lindon, we are not prone to 'joking' about important matters such as this." Prowl stated formally.

"But, me and Mirage?" She asked, still hoping that they were going to start laughing and say, "Surprise!".

"I don't see a problem with the assignment. You've shown skill in intelligence gathering and spying, and your small stature will be helpful in sneaking around, making you a far more likely candidate than the men around the base."

"So, you're sticking me with him because I've come up with a few good ideas for evasive actions and because I'm short?" She asked, sounding unimpressed.

"Ms. Lindon." Optimus began.

"Jessie." She interrupted him with a glare.

The Autobot commander sighed. "Jessie, while Mirage's capabilities make him an excellent spy there are some occasions when he could not use his ability, and his form is far too recognizable to the Decepticons. On the other hand, having a human partner, particularly a female as we do not have many femmes of your species amongst our ranks, would throw off suspicion. Espially since the Decepticons know of Mriage's aversion to allowing humans to ride-"

"Which is exactly why I want to know why I have to partner up with him! He doesn't even like me!" She exclaimed.

"Ms. Lindon." Prowl said, ignoring her glare. "We feel that this is the best course of action and will benefit us the most. Could you at least try to work with Mirage?"

Jessie really didn't want to, she wanted so badly to say no and demand another position. But wanting to say no to Optimus Prime and saying no to him are two different things entirely.

"Fine." She said, exhaling sharply in annoyance. "I'll try to work with him, but if squishes me or something for having to ride in him don't say I didn't warn you."

She turned around with a huff and headed back to her small room, quite content to sleep the rest of the day and perhaps the next and avoid coming anywhere near her new 'partner'.

It just had to be Mirage.


End file.
